DREAMING UP NEVADA TERRITORY JUNE 2019

Dreaming Up

Nevada Territory -the story of William Ormsby

By CW BAYER

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visit: nevadamusic.com

The founding of Nevada, Carson

City and Virginia City.

Money! Vigilantes! Lynching!

War! One of the West's most

interesting and important historical

stories.

© 2014 CW BAYER

Visit

www.nevadamusic.com for more books and CDs.

Thanks to Guy Rocha, Rex Reed and Sam Flakus for their assistance.

This book summarizes research that can be found more fully in my much larger book,

“Profit, Plots And Lynching—the creation of Nevada Territory”,

available at nevadamusic.com

That detailed book is probably best for historians or anyone interested in the sources.

nevadamusic ™

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http://www.nevadamusic.com

Introduction—Kit Carson

William Ormsby dreamt up Nevada. Yet, in Nevada the dreams and myths did not stop there. His

vision came with such violence that a host of other stories were soon created.

To this day, in northern Nevada, history often gets reduced to colorful anecdotes. Arguably

Duncan Emrich and Lucius Beebe gave this approach new life during the mid 20th century. Yet,

this propensity for tall tails in Nevada originates with the “founders” themselves. What is it about

the Great Basin that lends itself to fable—the stretches of road, the distance from civilization, the

nature of people who seek such places? Ironically, the actual story of Nevada’s creation may be

for amazing than the scattered sketches sold by amateur boosters.

For years, as local “history”, Carson City Tourism put out false statements about origins while

making no mention of Native Americans or William Ormsby. Here are some passages from their

“history” page.

• In 1858, Abraham Curry bought Eagle Station when he found properties in Genoa to be too

expensive.

In fact, the property was purchased by three men—Musser, Proctor and Curry—and apparently as

an extension of William Ormsby’s vigilante effort.

• In 1861, true to Curry’s prediction, and largely because of his

shrewd maneuvers, Carson City became the capital of the

Nevada Territory.

In fact, Abe Curry is not the reason Carson City became the capital of

Nevada Territory. The City was created as part of William Ormsby’s

vigilante effort.

• By 1851, Eagle Station, a trading post and small ranch on the

Carson Branch of the California Emigrant Trail, served as a

stopover for travel-weary gold prospectors.

In fact, the Eagle Valley station appears to have been created to

monitor John Reese’s cattle, hence situated distant from the emigrant

trail

• The habitat of the Eastern Sierra must have been a welcome refuge

for explorers Kit Carson and John C. Fremont as they rode into

Eagle Valley during their 1840s quest to map the West.

In fact, Kit Carson did not ride into Eagle Valley (where Carson City

sits) with John Fremont during the 1840s. He only visited the valley

during 1853, while driving a herd of sheep from the East to California.

From that time, the image of Kit Carson has been a means for

Americans to obscure the controversy and violence inherent to

American settlement of Nevada. In contrast, this book tells the ! 3

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unspoken story of the vigilantes who created provisional

Nevada Territory and of the man who championed that effort

—William Ormsby. A twisting tale of hopes and intrigue.

For over a century, this history has remained untold, until

now. The story of William Ormsby and the founding of

Nevada Territory resembles other local histories across

America—swept under the carpet, a carpet constructed to

create a glorious past in place of a flawed, compromised

reality so complex that it does not fit anyone’s modern social

agenda.

In Nevada, there are no statues of William Ormsby—only of

men of lesser or no importance to the founding of Nevada

and its capital, Carson City. In contrast, since the early

1850s, Kit Carson has been lionized in the region. Today,

Kit Carson continues to symbolize the glories of manifest

destiny—white American conquest, crafty, strong, the brave frontiersman battling Indians,

subduing nature. His bronze statue towers high on the Nevada Capital grounds, forever searching,

the noble explorer.

In contrast, William Ormsby’s story abounds in politics, violence, intrigue, profiteering and

conquest. He seized on and realized the nature of a

geographical reality that continues today, where Nevadans

have long prided themselves on their independence, living

far from sedate definitions of “civilization”. Yet, facing

the story of William Ormsby means facing the

contradictions to this independent stance—the will-power

and single-minded domination that define survival midst

the sage and pine.

During the 1850s, two partners, William Ormsby and

James Crane, saw a new American territory that would

resist outside control and be propelled by its native

mineral wealth and trading stations while simultaneously

profiting from those traveling through. That his

remarkable story resides only in this book, due to my

research, after over 150 years is testimony to how quickly

and thoroughly they were relegated to the closet after they

died—to how self-conscious and even embarrassed white

Americans have always been at the nature of their

conquest.

This book is not an apology for that conquest or for the violence that it entailed. It is an effort to

present the scope of Ormsby and Crane’s effort in the hope that, for better or worse, people might

appreciate or, at least, be aware of, what they did. A citizen provocateur, a teamster, a naive

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champion of law and order in a lawless land, a freebooter, a friend to grand ideas and progressive

business, the Ormsby’s ghost walks Carson City midst the schemes of pioneers who never cease

to arrive. The silver state remains a haven for speculators, gamblers, runaways and charmers.

Folk tales spring to life in a land where hawks circle overhead, where endless sage and pine

witness human hope and folly.

William Ormsby sought to impose his vision of this inland empire at the point of a gun. Neither

fully a hero nor villain. Major William Mathew Ormsby emerges as a polarizing figure, a

fabulous visionary, a manipulator and, at the personal level, a fool unable to make friends except

with promises. Controversial and forgotten, William Ormsby may never have a statue in

downtown Carson City. Instead, a man who never played any significant role in building a

territory or state, Kit Carson remains huge, bronze and green, astride his horse, the heroic scout.

Tourism promotes bike trails. The old train features gun-fighters and revels in iron. The stories of

risk and fun that propelled the 49ers remain mostly untold—lost beneath more glorious pursuits.

The street once named for Ormsby has been renamed, the hotel named for him has long lingered

empty. Ormsby’s presence floats over the valleys along the eastern slope midst a public never

provided knowledge of the amazing drama in which he took center-stage.

CW Bayer

Carson City, Nevada

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INTRODUCTION—KIT CARSON 3 ...................................................................

THE FORGOTTEN MAN 7 ................................................................................

GENOA AND THE EASTERN SLOPE 9 ................................................................

THE WAGON ROAD 12 .....................................................................................

THE PEOPLE’S COMMITTEE FOR SIERRA NEVADA TERRITORY 14 ...................

THE JOLLY ROGUE—LUCKY BILL 18 ...............................................................

SOUTHERN HELP 24 .......................................................................................

THE LYNCHING OF LUCKY BILL 25 .................................................................

THE FOUNDING OF CARSON CITY 27 ..............................................................

PROVISIONAL NEVADA TERRITORY 29 ............................................................

THE SEPARATIST EFFORT BEGINS TO FALL APART 32 ......................................

THE MAJOR RIDES NORTH 36 .........................................................................

AN OFFICIAL TERRITORY, A FUNDED ROAD AND A GHOST 42..........................

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The Forgotten Man

William Ormsby is barely mentioned today—in public,

in schools, by historians. Yet, he is the key “founding”

figure in creation of Nevada.

Born in 1814, a native of Pennsylvania and of

Protestant Irish ancestry, William Ormsby became a

Major in the Pennsylvania militia, as was his father. In

1844, at the age of 30, the Major married Margaret

Trumbo of Kentucky. She came from a well-off

southern family. During 1848, they had one child,

Elizabeth Jane. In Kentucky, he briefly ran a distillery,

dry goods store and gristmill, apparently without great

success. Then, during 1849, with two brothers and two

brothers-in-law, Ormsby and a group of men packed

overland by mule to California.

The Major’s basic skill lay in working with animals—as a teamster. Presumably, he had served in

the Pennsylvania militia—an institution with strong roots in the American Revolution. Arriving in

Sacramento, the Major briefly opened a mint with his brother, John. He bid on city jobs. During

1851, the Major operated a stage line to Coloma. In 1852, he returned east to bring his wife and

daughter from Kentucky. He also made the trip to bring horses West, working with his brother-in-

law at the Sacramento horse market. In California, horses commanded a good price, were in short

supply and denoted a man of means. The horses that Ormsby drove West in 1852 all died when

Ormsby became the last party to take the Hasting’s Cut-off,

where the Donner Party had gone astray some years

before. His brother, Oliver, later wrote:

Early in 1852 Major Ormsby went back to Pennsylvania to bring his and his brother’s families to California. There were about one hundred souls in the company and they were fitted out with the finest horses and equipment. However, when they reached Salt Lake, they had lost all of their horses and carriages and remained in Salt Lake two weeks to rest and recruit.

During 1853, the Major operated a stage line to

Marysville. During 1855, he again visited the East. During

1856, Major Ormsby seems to have joined William

Walker’s forces in Nicaragua. Called, the “gray eyed man

of destiny,” William Walker believed that American

civilization should assist less advanced peoples by

conquering, ruling them, replacing the feudal Spanish

land-grant system and bringing the benefits of Yankee ingenuity, agriculture and industry. To

Walker and his followers, it seemed logical that if the United States could expand its borders by

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force in 1846, taking California from

Mexico, it should do the same thing in

Nicaragua during 1856.

The Alta California and Sacramento

Union summed up the two opposing

views of Walker—views later mirrored by

divided sentiment over his disciple,

Ormsby’s, activities. The article used the

term “filibuster” as it was used in that time—to describe violent conquest. “Filibuster” derives

from “free booter”, meaning pirate.

Much as we may lament over—much as we may moralize about and deplore the 'filibustering' proclivities of our age and our people; much as we may mourn over the sad fate of those who have sacrificed their lives in former attempts at illegal conquest of territory, there is in all these movements but an expression and a development of that restless desire for 'enlarging the area of freedom' which has characterized our nation since the day when, confined within thirteen colonies, she asserted her claim to independence.

The Sacramento Union added.

A desire to 'enlarge the area of freedom' has comparatively nothing to do with these filibustering forays upon our neighbors. It is the restless spirit of plunder—of a desire to possess that which the stronger can always take from the weaker by force, which is the great moving cause. It is the manifestation of that spirit of aggression where wealth and power can be acquired, which has pervaded the breath of man, under all conditions, since the day that Cain slew Abel. History is one unending record of man's restless filibustering disposition, and it has oftener been invoked to extend the area of despotism than of freedom.

Though he personally opposed slavery, William Walker attracted the adventurers, expansionists

and white supremacists of his day--Americanists intent on the glory of expansion. Though

initially welcomed to Nicaragua by those who sought to replace the old Spanish land grant system

with Yankee entrepreneurship, by the summer

of 1856 Walker had met strong opposition and

his support increasingly came from Southern

financiers.

During late April of 1857, having returned

from Nicaragua, Major Ormsby packed by

mule across the crest of the Sierra Nevada

and into western Utah Territory where he

finally began to make his mark on Western

history. Just as Nicaragua had seemed ready

for conquest, so did the western edge of Utah

Territory. It lay far from any effective

administration by authorities in Salt Lake City and the Mormon government in that City had

withdrawn its judge and pious colonists. He had big ideas. On arriving, Ormsby proposed snow

sheds to cover the mountain trail from Genoa to Placerville.

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Major Ormsby, who is familiar with the road and has traveled over it all seasons of the year, says that by covering it with a steep roof for the distance of seven miles, from Slippery Ford to Lake Valley, uninterrupted communication could be had with Carson Valley during the entire year. The Major thinks the road could be covered for $3000 per mile.

On the surface, William Ormsby came to the eastern slope of the Sierra Nevada as a stage agent

for Jared Crandall’s Pioneer Stage Line. Yet, in fact, he came not just as a stage agent but as a

man bent on a visionary political mission—a vision of an inland empire. This was tied to the

specific issue of the wagon road—an issue in California since the early 1850s.

For the Major and like-minded people, the central overland road was seen as crucial to the future

of the Pacific region and of the United States. Ormsby, James Crane and others believed a central

overland road would increase the far West’s population of Americans and, by that means, prompt

division of western territories and states into multiple states—some abolitionist and others slave

holding. This spread of slavery to the far West would preserve the culture of the South and spare

American the looming Civil War. And, they held, while California had failed to realize its

promise by failing to control its own mineral wealth, a new Territory carved out of western Utah

Territory could realize all the hopes for freedom and true democracy that they saw as inherent to

the gold rush and, more broadly, to the great immigration of young American men to the far West.

Genoa And The Eastern Slope

“Sierra Nevada” is Spanish and means “snowy mountains.” The Sierra Nevada rise from the

continent like a tilted block, dropping gently toward the West, dropping abruptly from their peaks

along the Eastern Slope into the Great Basin. Along the eastern slope, together, lie three important

wetland valleys, adjacent to each other, where water from the Sierra Nevada runs east—the

Truckee Meadows, Washoe Valley, Eagle Valley and Carson Valley. An old story says God grew

tired on the seventh day and failed to run them to the sea.

California’s central valley blossoms from water that roles down the western incline in long rivers

to the Pacific ocean. In the four valleys along the easter slope that have long defined “northern

Nevada”, the Sierra Nevada nips the clouds that blow east from the Pacific. To the east, the Great

Basin is hardly a “basin”. It contains over a hundred mountain ranges, wrinkling the earth’s

thinned crust for 700 miles between the Eastern Slope and Salt Lake City. These alternate with

flat desert and alkali flats—the minerals collecting at the surface as water simply settles into the

ground. Dust devils dance across the alkali flats—a romantic image for what is, in fact, a hard and

desolate environment. Gold rush immigrants who drank the alkali water would suffer diarrhea.

This was probably to blame for the cholera that wiped out whole companies of immigrants during

the early 1850s.

Today, the largest city in “northern Nevada” lies in the Truckee Meadows— Reno. However,

during the 1850s, the principal settlement, Genoa, lay at the southern most of the four valleys—

Carson Valley. There were two gold rush routes to California—the Truckee route and the Carson

route. During the early gold-rush, due to the river crossings east of the Truckee Meadow and the

history of the Donner party on the Truckee route, the Carson route was more popular. On that

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route, the immigrant trail came southwest down the Mary (later the Humboldt) River, turned

south across the 40 Mile Desert, arrived at Ragtime and the Carson Sink near modern Fallon and

then went west along the Carson River. Trading stations sprang up along the Carson River to Rag

Town, at the Carson Sink—where that river sank into the ground. An immigrant would do well to

have some cash still in hand upon reaching Rag Town where resupply with goods from California

would be expensive. Ragtown was built with discarded wagon parts collected from the 40 Mile

Desert. It is said to have been destroyed in 1854 by bad whiskey.

By 1849, from Salt Lake City, some 700 miles east, the Mormon Church ruled Utah Territory…or

attempted to. Stretching west to the Sierra Nevada, Utah Territory was a vast ungoverned desert

across which migrants ventured by wagon, trusting their fate to teamsters and wagon bosses hired

at Salt Lake or Fort Hall. The church’s dominance of Utah represented an alliance between

church and state that many Americans considered an “ecclesiastical tyranny.” Beginning in 1849,

Mormons and early immigrants prospected Gold Canyon at the southern side to what was later

called the Comstock Lode, northeast of Eagle and Carson Valleys. In the far West, Mormons were

much criticized because, at that time, they practiced polygamy-the practice of marrying more than

one wife. However, before 1856, the Eastern Slope saw few pious Mormons. In fact, western

Utah Territory became a haven for discontented Mormons from Eastern Utah as well as for

gamblers and thieves from California.

By 1854, the immigrant trail across the Great Basin was so beset by thieves and with emigration

declining due to drought, the man who carried the mail to Salt Lake, George Chorpenning, moved

his services southward-linking Salt Lake to San Pedro, south of Los Angeles. However, between

1851 and 1855, the eastern seemed to be moving toward

settlement with the Mormon administration gradually

increasing its stake and ability to rule.

This began when John Reese came to Carson Valley during

1851. He came to the eastern slop in order to ship gold from

nearby Gold Canyon to his brother, Enoch, who had been

assigned by Brigham Young to run the mint in Salt Lake

City. As Reese arrived, George Chorpenning was already

using the corral at the old Mormon Station, at the foot of

Sierra Canyon, while beginning to run mail across the Great

Basin.

Reese claimed a parcel immediately to the south of the coral,

though in many histories it would later be mistakenly

assumed that the coral had been the site of his station.

Because Gold Canyon gold assayed at only 11 dollars per ounce, compared to California gold at

18 per ounce, Brigham Young became worried about the reputation of Mormon coin. He closed

the Salt Lake mint during 1853. Hoping to stay on the eastern slope, John Reese was forced to

find new enterprises. Reese borrowed money from the infamous gambler Lucky Bill, who had

won $24,000 rigging thimbles in California during the 1850s until legislation pushed such

activities out of Sacramento and, later, an angry mob ran him out of Placerville. With the ! 10

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borrowed money, Reese stocked a warehouse in

order to trade with emigrants. He also purchased

sheep to sell in California. He grazed many of

these in Eagle Valley where a station had been

created during 1851 to oversee herds. However,

in 1854, Reese’s partner stole all the sheep,

leaving Reese to turn over most of his assets to

Lucky Bill—all of Eagle Valley, the toll bridge

in Carson Canyon and the contents of his

warehouse. During 1855, at Reese’s request, the governor of Utah Territory, Brigham Young, sent

a probate judge, Orson Hyde, to western Utah to help John Reese re-establish his company’s

prosperity.

Soon after he arrived, Judge Hyde came to believe that the Mormon Church could not retain

control over this western outpost of Utah Territory unless pious Mormons colonized the region.

The swearing and drinking of local apostate Mormons drove him crazy. Hyde had felt passed over

by the successes of Brigham Young in leading the Mormons to Salt Lake after persecution in the

mid-West. Hyde dreamt of beginning his own new Mormon Territory called Columbus.

Recognizing the distance from Salt Lake City, Orson Hyde laid out a town near the old Mormon

station. He named it Genoa for the birthplace of Christopher Columbus, in Italy.

Fulfilling the task given him by Brigham Young, Hyde ruled in favor of John Reese during a trial

over ownership of the Genoa grist mill. Then, at John Reese’s insistence, Hyde raised a posse to

enforce a fine against Richard Sides, a local trader. Both

Orson Hyde and federal Judge Drummond had ruled that

Sides should pay John Reese $1000. On a frigid October

night, Orson Hyde’s posse found itself besieging several

dozen armed non-Mormons, fortified inside a house and

barn at the north end of Carson Valley. Fearing bloodshed,

Hyde tried to persuade Reese to let the Mormon posse back

down. Reese refused. After Hyde rode away, his posse got

cold and deserted. The incident destroyed Judge Hyde’s

credibility among the traders in Carson Valley. Richard

Sides and others threatened to lynch Hyde’s tax collector

unless he refunded their money.

During the summer of 1856, after repeated requests by

Hyde, Brigham Young sent Mormon colonists who set up

mostly in Washoe Valley. They began to build a new town,

Franktown, named for the first child born among the

colonists. Shortly after the mill dispute, Orson Hyde

returned to Salt Lake City and Utah’s territorial legislature

soon ended Carson County’s judicial independence. Along the Eastern Slope, pious Mormon

colonists remained, now in growing doubt about their status.

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Seeking to take the polygamy issue from the hands of his Republican opponents and limit

discussions of popular sovereignty—local control—to slavery, President Buchanan ordered the

military to march on Salt Lake. In Carson, Eagle and Washoe Valleys, rumors flew that Brigham

Young would soon withdraw the Mormon colonists to help the Mormon church defend their Zion

against federal soldiers. The colonist’s withdrawal promised to leave western Utah Territory open

to whoever could take control. Years later, frustrated that he had been paid little for the mill that

colonists constructed in Washoe Valley, Orson Hyde issued a curse, reading it in the Utah

Legislature:

…You shall be visited of the Lord of Hosts with thunder and with earthquake and with floods, with pestilence and with famine until your names are not known amongst men, for you have rejected the authority of God, trampled upon his laws and his ordinances, and given yourselves up to serve the god of this world; to rioting in debauchery, in abominations drunkenness and corruption . . . .

Meanwhile, in California, leading men looked east with concern over ongoing dangers on the

immigrant trail west. The wagon companies arrived into the Sierra Nevada and, with no pattern,

some described how their stock had been driven off at night while they slept in the desert. Since

1851, there had been a desire along the Eastern Slope of the Sierra Nevada to either create a new

territory out of western Utah Territory or be annexed by California. Closer than the distant and

tentative administration of Utah, a new territory might better protect the trail. William Ormsby

and his partner, James Crane, tied their desire to a larger political picture and became the catalyst

for change. This being said, their efforts initially caused great discord.

The Wagon Road

During April 1857, before the mountain trail cleared of snow, Major William Ormsby and eight

other men drove 25 pack mules along the immigrant trail from Placerville to Genoa. The trail

eastward wound up a canyon of the Sierra Nevada’s gradual western decline, then dropped

abruptly down the rocks along the rushing river in Carson Canyon. The Major rented the old

Mormon station corral from John Reese. Arriving as point man in an ambitious enterprise, the

Major enjoyed some support. Since 1850, leading Northern Californians had championed a

central over-land wagon road and then railroad. They sought an overland link between the Pacific

and the East as the most important means by which to ensure the economic survival and growth

of their state.

Some Californians avidly sought control over their destiny. During the summer of 1856, with tacit

approval by much of the public, a vigilante committee took control of San Francisco and expelled

the “Tammany Hall,” Northern Democrats—so called because they resembled Boss Tweed’s

political machine in New York City. The San Francisco vigilante committee’s success

accompanied renewed calls for a central overland road as well as renewed calls to create a Pacific

Republic. During this September 1856, California’s threats of secession prompted Congress to

finally approve funding for a central overland railroad-at least in principle. No money was

forthcoming.

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Until about 1856, many Californians saw their regional interest as identical to southern interest.

They shared a desire for local control and freedom from central government oppression.

However, when President Buchanan funded the overland stage route through southern states, the

power of the South’s plantation aristocracy became undeniable. As 49ers were champions of the

little guy, many men in California’s gold country began to see the West as having a strongly

separate self-interest from that of the South. Many miners began to resent rivalry by the South for

federal funds. This built on the growing feeling that Washington was neglecting California and its

potential.

By spring of 1857, the recent success of San Francisco’s vigilante committee in ridding San

Francisco of allegedly criminal elements had buoyed western proponents of local political

determination. They had become a force to be reckoned with. Many Northern Californians felt

ready to further solve their own problems and to forcibly connect California to the East. And, if

not to the East, they hoped to create a Pacific Republic, a new and separate American nation in

the West.

In June 1857, Jared Crandall began to run a stagecoach between Placerville and Genoa. No road

yet existed, only the unimproved immigrant trail. Crandall sought to force the issue--running a

lightweight mud-wagon to prove a point about western resolve. In Genoa, having rented the

corral at the Old Mormon Station, William Ormsby set up as local agent for Jared Crandall’s

Pioneer Stage-line. Lucky Bill remained at the height of his local popularity. The lore surrounding

him was repeated by a correspondent visiting Genoa for The Sacramento Union:

During the evening, our company was visited by Wm. Thorington, familiarly and almost exclusively known as "Lucky Bill." Lucky Bill is a 'character,' quite by himself. He is an original; one of those geniuses who might have rendered a great and healthy service to society, if in his early days his attention had been turned to something beside the speedy consumption of bad whiskey. The influence of such a man is necessarily very extensive the one way or the other; his ready wit and physical power driving his arguments sharp home to his neighbor's consideration. Why, it is Lucky Bill who furnished the odd household phrases and by-words of the community in which he resides—in his mint are coined the broadest oaths of the country. The nature of such a person abhors a secret, and he impersonates his own style. Everything is developed up to the second, and when he dies he leaves no will. If any devilish ideas should lay behind, he shrieks out 'Time,' and you get a hint of the child that might have been. There is no malice in his nature, as all his gifts are spent, good and bad, as fast as they come. The act and word is exhaustive—the light of each day burns to the socket. Yet such men are very shallow at best, as those must be whose whole soul can walk out in a sentence. Lucky Bill gave us a good deal of theory, and killed the fatted calf for the "Prodigal Pioneer.”

The effort to promote the stage route between Genoa and Placerville faced strong competition.

The towns of Marysville and Shasta wanted the central overland wagon road to cross the Sierra

Nevada further north at Honey Lake. Other promoters wanted the Carson Valley route to skirt

Placerville and take the Big Tree Route to Stockton. Despite all the talk, the trail between Genoa

and Placerville long remained largely unimproved. Immigrants described Carson Canyon as one

of the West’s most important "elephants". That June, Jared Crandall began to run the stage.

Though his line enjoyed modest financial backing, by simply attempting the journey Crandall

achieved a good deal of notice. It looked as if the long-awaited central overland road might soon

be built.

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Over the next year, the news emanating from William Ormsby and his circle radiated optimism

and promise. Neither Ormsby nor his friends realized that the Eastern Slope would prove to be

such rocky ground in which to plant ideology and progress.

The People’s Committee For Sierra Nevada Territory

The Major partnered in his effort with one of California’s most

outspoken political critics--Judge James M. Crane. Crane’s

theories were central to Ormsby’s effort.

During July 1857, Judge James M. Crane stepped aboard a

Pioneer Line mud wagon and rode from Placerville to Genoa.

A native of Richmond Virginia, Crane had come to California

during 1849. In San Francisco, due to differences of opinion

with eastern Whigs, he failed as owner of a Whig newspaper.

Though increasingly regarded by the mainstream press as an

eccentric, like some others, Crane quickly recognized that the

West was not the East. The West faced unique needs and held

vast opportunities that were, as yet, unrealized. The mountains

contained vast expanses of lumber for construction. The rivers

contained untapped water for agriculture. Gold that was going

into the pockets of distant financiers could be put to use to

build a thriving local economy.

Ambitious, articulate and egotistical, during spring of 1856 Judge James Crane published The

Past, The Present and The Future of The Pacific. In his book, Crane discussed the central

government’s neglect and oppression of California, political incompetence in Washington and the

need for a central overland railroad. Disillusioned with politics as usual, Crane had written:

…the mass of our politicians are men of limited capacities. Instead of being teachers of eternal political truth to the people, they are but mere babblers of the follies of the times-moths upon the revenues of the people, and the personification of all devices of the age. Their ways ought not to be our ways, for theirs lead to every train of evil to which fallen man is heir.

Crane’s impatience had a focus. As did others Southerners, he hoped that the Pacific region would

rival the East. Like a few other Southern visionaries in California, he believed this could happen

if only enough Americans could arrive from the east. A railroad or wagon road was needed. He

predicted that this influx would lead to the creation of many states in the West. His theories were

widely echoed in a somewhat cloaked discussion of a Pacific Republic, a new American nation in

the West.

Crane saw the new territory as realizing the desire by California’s growing number of popular

sovereignty advocates for a vast blossoming of American culture in the far West.

In six years. Period. There will be three states Formed out of the territories of Washington and Oregon. Three states… No doubt will, be formed out of California, and three out of

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Utah and the part of New Mexico….In the meantime, lower California and Sonora will naturally fall into our hands….These 12 states will been give us (in the West) 24 senators, and some 32 members of the House of Representatives.

Crane’s book and plan echoed a plan outlined during 1855 in an Oregon newspaper:

I lay before you, in advance of all publicity, a scheme which is now advancing under profound secrecy among a good number of our most respectable and influential citizens. I have no time to comment, but give you the plan, as it has been revealed to me, without any injunction of concealment. A new Republic is to be formed, consisting at first of ten states, three to be formed within the present limits of the State of California, three in Oregon Territory, two in Washington Territory, and two from western portions of Utah and New Mexico. The basis is to be a confederated government similar to yours on the Atlantic Side. The great Pacific Railroad is to be abandoned, and every obstacle thrown in the way of its construction, while the argument at the hustings is to be made to the people that the government in Washington has refused the road to the people of the Pacific. The question of slavery is to be adjured and disclaimed until the plan is so far executed that there can be no retraction, after which the southern four or five states will adopt slavery. The first convention is to be imposing in numbers, and especially in the distinguished talent of its members. You need no information as to the number of ex-Senators, ex-Governors, and ex-Judges who swarm in our midst, panting for one more good old fashioned political chase.

Crane alluded to his own lonely struggle against Eastern “powers that be.” His frequent

references to himself caused the The Past, The Present and The Future of The Pacific to receive

poor reviews.

The pioneers of every country have always had to prepare the way for others; to settle new regions of the world, at their own expense; to lay the foundation of new States and Empires, as well as new commercial cities; to be the first to diffuse the principles of civil liberty, education, and christian civilization….

After his book’s publication, Judge Crane continued to

lecture on this subject—one that average miners seem to

have found a bit lofty. After April 1857, just before the

wagon Road convention Marysville, Crane spoke but few

attended his talk. The local newspaper wrote:

....In the forthcoming publication, if Mr. Crane will say less about himself than he had in this pamphlet, it will doubtless be more acceptable to most of his readers, for, although a person may deem that he is the embodiment of a great portion of the history of the times, it is in much better taste to await the decision of an impartial public in the matter, than to sit as judge, jury and counsel in one’s own case, and bring in a complimentary verdict in one’s own favor.

That spring, California saw a flurry of wagon road

conventions. The variety stemmed from a lively dispute over where the central overland wagon

road should cross the Sierra Nevada. Federal legislation called for the central overland wagon

road to cross the Great Basin and arrive at Honey Lake, that is going north of the Humboldt and

Carson sinks. In Marysville, the convention sought to promote a crossing of the Sierra Nevada at

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Honey Lake-some 150 miles north of Carson Valley. In San Francisco, a Vigilante Committee

took over the City and some called for a Pacific Republic:

A majority of the Committee are doubtless as yet opposed to the measure of secession; but how long will they be able to retain their ascendancy?...It is notorious that the wretched echoes of these Committee men advocate the demolition of the State Government, and the sympathizers have promulgated the plan of a Pacific Republic.

After visiting Marysville, James Crane seems to have realized that the Carson Pass crossing of the

Sierra Nevada enjoyed greater political support. And perhaps he hoped it would give him more

support as well. Crane briefly returned to California and bitterly

wrote the press:

I have made nothing on my lectures-indeed I have lost money on them….I shall lecture no more in this state. The mass of the people seem to prefer the hoedown, Fandango’s, wizard and monkey shows, horse uppers etc., to anything that might enlighten them about the country.

During August 1857, it was probably Ormsby who rang a

cowbell in Genoa and collected 50 men to form a territory

committee and call for a mass meeting. Ormsby’s stage partner,

W.W. Smith, wrote:

This movement was almost an impromptu one, although it may be attended by very important results. About dusk a man was sent out with a cowbell, and in the course of a few minutes some fifty persons assembled at Gilbert's saloon.

For a second, larger meeting, prominent Honey Lakers came

south to join the effort. Lead by Isaac Roop, Honey Lake

landowners wanted to avoid inclusion in Utah as well as taxation by California’s Plumas County.

Roop’s idea of economic protection reflected his Whig ideals and made him a natural ally to

James Crane. During spring of 1856, after Orson Hyde visited, Honey Lake landowners

attempted to form a territory of their own, “Nataqua”, Paiute for “woman”.

In July of 1857, Isaac Roop was constructing a lumber mill and anticipating new settlement in

Honey Lake. Land prices would rise. In response, California’s Plumas County again proposed

taxing the Honey Lakers’ land. Seeking to avoid California taxes, the Honey Lakers attended

Ormsby’s Genoa meeting. They strongly supported Ormsby and Crane’s effort to form a new

territory and they became the backbone of that effort. They hoped Honey Lake would lie in the

new Territory and thus avoid California taxes.

Initially, Ormsby and Crane enjoyed some support in Carson Valley. For many Carson Valley

residents, the effort toward a new territory reflected a long-standing desire to be free of Utah’s

control. At the same time, Salt Lake City lay far off and, except for the arrival of Orson Hyde, has

been of little bother. Then, as today, the geographical isolation and hence uniqueness of

settlement along the eastern slope told everyone that, however well connected culturally to the

nation, they must fend for themselves. As a result, then and now, local culture has always taken

an independent twist. And, in has always factionalized between those old hands with experience

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who run things based on conversation and the younger upstarts who hear of some policy or law

that works somewhere else.

From 1851 forward, Carson Valley residents had contemplated forming a government

independent of both California and Utah. The problem lay deciding which faction would be in

control—the old traders or Ormsby with his great political agenda. The victor in this struggle

would be the one who became allied with mining profit. In Carson Valley, new motivation for a

separate territory came from spreading awareness that nearby Gold Canyon contained enormous

wealth--gold and silver. In Gold Canyon, with talk of the new territory, miners began to position

themselves for a mining boom. Crane wrote in the Placerville paper, clearly seeing their mining

efforts bolstered by the impending boom.

Mark what I tell you; the whole line of this route will be taken up and occupied with miners. In five years from this time this valley and the intermediate region between it and Placerville, will contain a population of over fifteen thousand inhabitants. Tracy's Express, connecting with Wells, Fargo and Co., is in full operation between Placerville and Genoa, and it is destined to do a large business—Smith & Ormsby are the Agents.

On August 8, 1857, in Genoa at the mass meeting, James Crane delivered a speech that met with

general approval. They elected Crane as delegate to Congress and drew up a memorial lauding

Crane’s mission to “The Powers That Be” in Washington. The memorial contained little criticism

of the Mormons. Equally significant, it stated:

… When they are properly explored and developed, it will be found that we possess, for all four it's extent, one of the richest and most productive regions of the globe. As the evidence in support of these faxes known and can be known to but a few individuals, we do not propose to discuss the subject….

Through the fall, Ormsby positioned his private expectation for profit. Earlier perhaps than any

other man of influence, William Ormsby took seriously reports of great mineral wealth in Gold

Canyon. Apparently, from John Reese and from local miners, Ormsby knew details of Gold

Canyon’s riches that were not yet widely public. During the fall of 1857, Ormsby purchased

hundreds of acres at the foot of both outlets that lead up to Gold Canyon. At the modern

Steamboat Spring and the modern Dayton. These parcels would be ideal for cities built to supply

a mining boom. During the fall of 1857, Crane gave a speech in Honey Lake. California’s

northern most counties championed a Honey Lake crossing for the wagon road and the survey

east from Honey Lake was underway. Apparently feeling betrayed by the Honey Laker’s alliance

with men from Carson Valley, a Shasta paper reported:

These hotspur resolution smell of war, and have a decided odor of treason. The Honey Lake Valleyans are going to have a government of their own, nolens volens. Neither California nor Brigham Young, they intimate, shall have the honor of governing them. They are emphatically angry at somebody, and indicate a state of mind suitable for “treasons, stratagems, etc.”, at which we are disposed to marvel, seeing that they had music on the occasion. The fiery spirit pervading the resolutions is evidently a trivial attributable to the eloquent harangue of Judge Crane, of an hours length, in which he reviewed the policy of the Government from 1798 to the present time! We venture to assert that any mere mortal man, after being forced to listen to Judge Crane, will be in a fit state of mind to do any desperate deed….

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The idea of an empire in the West was increasingly being seen as a counter both to the East and

the South. Opposition to the South seems to have doomed Crane’s efforts in Washington. Another

letter from California:

You will see life as it is on the Pacific shores. The day is not far distant when an Empire will be established & unless a Pacific Rail Road is built there will be nothing to bind us to the Confederacy. Under Buchanan's administration I see no chance of a Pacific Rail Road unless it should be an extreme Southern route, which California does not want which will pass through inhospitable deserts & which will serve no other purpose under heaven than aiding the Chivalry....

The dangers and primitive nature of the trail across the Great Basin remained hurdles in the way

of these grand plans. Another letter from California stated:

Now I cannot but believe that you are strongly in favor of the closer connection of the Empire of the Pacific with the Republics East...but perhaps at the same time you mistrust the Bills that have been before the peoples legislators, because they propose to take so much from the public lands....

Now all the Wagon Road wants is protection for the mail across the plains. With an appropriation sufficient to establish a garrison station once in 15 miles, private enterprise would provide depots of provisions for men and horses and there would be a 14 day passage commenced at once.

The Jolly Rogue—Lucky Bill

Where Ormsby was often roundly disliked the be early inhabitants of Carson Valley, the infamous

gambler, William “Lucky Bill” Thorington, had many friends. A few in Carson Valley supported

Ormsby. Yet, opposition to his efforts emerged almost immediately, centered around Lucky Bill.

To the Truckee Meadows, at the foot of

Donner Pass, Ormsby had sent provisions

and stock for a station on the road north to

Honey Lake where the central overland

route was being surveyed toward the East.

However, on the day of the Genoa mass

meeting, white desperadoes rode in from

the desert and stole the provisions.

Ormsby and Crane then rode east to inquire

about the white desperadoes. They learned

that white traders were masquerading as Indians and were enlisting Indians to steal stock from

immigrants. Ormsby concluded that through the early years of the gold rush, raids upon the

immigrants had often been unjustly attributed to Indians and that their instigation lay largely with

renegade whites.

Ormsby concluded that, at least for the season, the immigrant trail would remain dangerous. Very

quickly, probably with help from local anti-Mormons such as Richard Sides, Ormsby and his

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allies began to believe that they had found the

desperadoes’ leader-William “Lucky Bill” Thorington.

A gambler from California’s early days, Lucky Bill had

made his fortune during 1850 and ‘51 rigging thimbles--

shuffling a buckskin ball under wooden cups along

Sacramento’s wharf. A charming rogue, he claimed to

delight in returning a portion of his winnings to those he

might have left destitute. He would advise the sucker,

"never play a man at his own game."

During 1851, at the California legislature outlawed

thimble rigging. In 1853, Lucky Bill fled the vigilante

justice of California's mining camps and arrived along

the Eastern Slope. In Carson Valley, through investment

of his winnings and by taking over management of the

Carson Canyon toll bridge, in partnership with John Reese, the gambler prospered and by 1857

had become the region’s wealthiest businessman.

Bold, charming and savvy enough to market those qualities, Thorington appears to have been the

first man to recognize that Kit Carson’s name would be useful in advertising travel through the

region. During the mid-1840s, John Fremont gave the scout’s name to the Carson River. From

this river, by 1850, Carson Valley had derived its name. During 1853, between jobs for the

government, Kit Carson drove a herd of sheep from New Mexico to California where there had

grown a demand for meat and wool. Sierra Nevada miners needed wool work clothes. That

summer, as the famous scout and his sheep arrived in the far West, Carson was greeted as a hero

of the recent war with Mexico and as an exemplary American frontiersman. Lucky Bill gave Kit

Carson’s sheep free passage up the toll road in the canyon. The scout’s name soon appeared on

Carson Pass and on Carson County, Utah. From this time, the “Carson” name became emblematic

of the noble frontiersman and hence American efforts in the West.

During 1855, after as article in The Golden Era, Lucky Bill became a living legend, remembered

for decades in Carson Valley. The gambler seems to have sought the article in order to irritate

Orson Hyde and counter the effort to create a pious Mormon outpost along the Eastern Slope. Its

basic premise played on the widespread fear that the Mormons would spread polygamy to further

regions of the nation. With deep sarcasm, the Golden Era article declared that, yes, polygamy has

spread to the Eastern Slope and it may soon be found in the person of the infamous rogue, Lucky

Bill.

Of all the individuals who figured in California in early times as desperate and successful gamblers, or rather as “thimbleriggers" and French monte dealers, none are better known than the subject of this sketch, Lucky Bill. Many who were in the State as early as '50 or '51 will doubtless remember him. During the greater portion of these two years he was a resident of Sacramento City, and almost any day might have been seen squatted in front of some of the gambling houses, or near a street corner, with a pile of doubloons beside him, offering to bet "two, four or six ounces" that no one could find the “little joker" which he was artistically moving about under the three “cups" placed in a row upon his knee, or which was ingeniously hidden under his thumbnail. In the spring of '51, when

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"thimble-rigging" and French monte were carried on to their greatest extent, and with such success, too, that the fraternity practicing them were enabled to rent the largest gambling house in Sacramento for no other purpose than that of securing to themselves the right of exhibiting their games in front of it. Lucky Bill occupied a stool at the extreme west end of the porch of the building, and in two months time made $24,000. This sum seems immense for a gambler to make in the short space of sixty days, yet it is hardly a tithe of the amount to which Lucky Bill victimized the unwary during the three years preceding the passage of a law by our Legislature in 1852, prohibiting "French moats," "thimble game," "pick-the-loop," and similar thieving games then practiced to an alarming extent throughout almost every portion of the State. Bill understood his business as well as anyone that ever undertook to mislead the eye of the verdant miner; and although his great success may doubtless be attributed to the dexterous and well-organized gang of hired “cappers," who, disguised as miners, laborers, traders, etc., etc., went from table to table and from game to game, making sham bets (which they generally won) and inviting the looker-on to “invest," yet not a small share of it was owing to his own shrewd management. Sometimes he would assume such an air of verdancy, and handle his "cups" so clumsily, that persons well acquainted with the nature of the game (better, I need not say, than with the man dealing it) imagining that they had found some one ignorant of his business, were induced to lay down a few ounces, religiously believing that an opportunity had at last presented itself for them to get even with previous losses; and others were ensnared and relieved of many an ounce by his counterfeiting intoxication, and recklessly tossing his money around, and exhibiting "dead-woods" (certainties of winning) to their temptation. One bet generally operated as an eye-opener, however, and relieved the loser of any erroneous idea that appearances may have warranted him in entertaining respecting Bill's verdancy or intoxication, for the bet always lost. Bill's usual method of attracting custom was the cry of-"Here, gentlemen, is a nice, quiet little game conducted on the square, and especially recommended by the clergy for its honesty and wholesome moral tendencies. I win only from blind men; all that have two good eyes can win a fortune. You see, gentlemen, here are three little wooden cups, and here is a little ball, which, for the sake of starting the game, I shall place under this one, as you can plainly see; and now I shall place it under this one, as you can plainly see, and now I shall place it under this, the middle one, merely to show how much quicker the hand is than the eye, and removing it from the middle, quietly cover it with the other, thus-and thus-and thus; and now I will bet two, four, or six ounces that no gentleman can the first time trying, raise the cup that the ball is under; if he can, he can win all the money that Bill, by patient toil and industry, has scraped together." What Lucky Bill's real name is, or where he is from, I do not know, for as I scarcely expected to become his biographer, I never took the trouble to ascertain either....

...Bill had a heart, and a kind one, too, if it was touched in the right place; and it was no uncommon occurrence for him to contribute fifty or a hundred dollars towards raising a fund for the relief of a destitute family, or to enable some unfortunate individual to return to the Atlantic States; and scarcely a day passed that he did not refund to someone money which he had won from him, upon ascertaining that it left the loser destitute. In one instance, I know of his winning three hundred dollars from an old man, on his way home. After he had lost it, he turned away with such a look of misery, that Bill called him back and asked him which way he was traveling, and if he was out of funds. The old man thought he was being ridiculed, but answered that he had no money left; that he had been six months in laying up the three hundred dollars which he had just foolishly lost, and with which he expected to have paid his passage home, but that he supposed nothing was left him now but to return to the mines. Bill inquired why he was so anxious to return to his family, and with scarcely money enough to pay his passage. The other answered that a short time before, he had learned that his wife was dead, and that three of his children were without a home. Bill did not ask another question, but handed the three hundred dollars back to the old man, which he had won from him, and two hundred 'dollars besides, saying as he did so-“Here, old man take back your money, and here is a trifle besides, which might be handy when you get home; I don't play to win money from such

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as you. Take it, and never again bet at any game, however strong the impulse may be; for the game that I play is about as honest as any other, and the devil couldn't win at it if he wasn't a “capper." The old man took the money, and went away a wiser if not a better man....He...settled in Carson Valley, where he is at present residing. He is again wealthy, owning a saw-mill and several thousand head of cattle and horses. It is said he contemplates joining the Mormons, and taking to his heart twenty or thirty wives which he will have an opportunity of doing, now that the Mormons are settling in Carson Valley. He seldom plays, except for amusement or when in want of a few yoke of cattle or a horse or two, and these he can win without difficulty from the emigrants. Of the immigration across the Plains in 1854, quite a number entered Placerville on foot, leaving cattle, horses, wagons and all in the hands of Lucky Bill, the “thimble-rigger." The next we shall hear of him will probably be as a Mormon prophet, with fifty wives and concubines.

In the piece, Thorington emerged with an image that would endure for generations and become

Carson Valley lore. Cocky, over 6 feet tall, popular, unaccomplished storyteller, known as a local

character, the source of numerous local phrases, Lucky Bill joked about his conversion to the

Mormon faith and boasted that someday he might take as many as 50 concubines.

By summer of 1857, already the valley’s most famous resident and now positioned as a local

business leader, Lucky Bill had ceased charging tolls in Carson Canyon and had given up

ranching. During late August, two weeks after Ormsby and Crane’s mass meeting calling for

formation of a new territory, at the grand opening of Lucky Bills new Genoa hotel, Richard Sides

got into a brawl with Lucky Bill’s friend, Uncle Billy Rogers. Sides had led anti-Mormon effort

against probate judge Orson Hyde. But that did not make him friends to Lucky Bill. Sides had

tied in with Ormsby and Crane. By the end of the night, Sides and his friends had ransacked the

hotel and had threatened both Rogers and Thorington. The threat to Lucky Bill was real. A week

after the fight, the famous gambler sold his hotel and claimed a vacant ranch south of Genoa

where he would live with his “second wife” and her baby. Battle lines were being drawn and, for

the moment, Ormsby’s faction seemed to hold Genoa.

Privately, Ormsby, Sides and their allies now contemplated formation of a People’s Committee—

vigilantes. They faced disorganized opposition based around Thorington, his friend Uncle Billy

Rogers and an undercover reporter for The San Francisco Herald, Richard Allen. Allen wrote

under the pen name, “Tennessee”. From September 1857, for three years, Allen described a rough

society along the Eastern Slope, saving his sharpest barbs for Ormsby, Crane and their friends;

I believe they are laboring under the impression that the coming session of Congress will be held for no other purpose than to establish the territory of Nevada, so as to create offices for them to fill.

Allen represented a consistent and sometimes solitary voice for legitimate law along the Eastern

Slope--free from the citizens’ government of Ormsby's committee or the religious rule of the

Mormon Church. His views suggest more substance to Thorington’s opposition than the

gambler’s reputation might at first suggest.

During September 1857, the situation degenerated further. Faced with federal troops marching on

Salt Lake City, Brigham Young recalled the Mormon colonists from Carson, Eagle and Washoe

valleys. Speculators bought their land at bargain prices. And, someone attempted to burn down

Ormsby’s residence at the old Mormon station.

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A few days later, in Carson Pass, gamblers murdered some local

pack train operators. By sticking arrows in the gunshot wounds,

they appear to have framed Washoe Indians. The murder may

have been committed not only to steal the pack train operators’

money but also to drive a wedge between Uncle Billy Rogers and

his Washoe Indian friends. The public would demand that Uncle

Billy find the culprit from among his friends.

If the intent was to alienate Rogers from the Washoe, it backfired.

In response, Billy Rogers obtained arms from California, creating

what would some would call Rogers’ “private army.” Carson

Valley now divided into two camps. By the end of September, the

California press reported a situation that, in some sense, would

remain for years;

Two sets of officers have been elected, one by the Mormons and one by the Gentiles-each refuse to recognize their opponent’s officials… and both refused to act. The result is that anarchy and crime are very common, and go unpunished.

In Uncle Billy Rogers, Ormsby's committee found itself faced with armed opposition. Probably in

response to Roger’s friendship with the Washoe, Ormsby solidified a military alliance with the

Paiutes, based on their common interest in peace and opposition to random crime. Since 1856, the

Paiutes and the Honey Lakers had kept a peace treaty. A large group of Paiutes rode into Genoa,

heard a speech by the Major, sang the Star-Spangled Banner and rode out with the Major in a

display of force and unity.

They appear to have arrived with War Chief Winnemucca’s daughter, Sarah, who took up

residence with Margaret Ormsby and her daughter, Lizzie. For the moment, many (though

probably not all) Paiutes seem to have been inspired by Ormsby and Chief Winnemucca’s vision

of law and order. The force rode to Honey Lake to help the Honey Lakers fight the Pitt River

Indians-renegade Native Americans and whites that preyed on both the Oregon and California

trails. Unfortunately, the Honey Lakers failed to recognize the arriving Paiutes as allies and shot

one of them as they approached. The clear line between the Paiute and Washoe began to fall apart

with some Paiute concerned about treatment of the Washoe.

During mid October, news arrived of the Mountain Meadow massacre in eastern Utah. With

Native American assistance, Mormons killed 120 members of an immigrant party. The event

earned the Mormons criticism for years to come. The massacre confirmed Ormsby and Crane’s

worst fears. Now, They saw or imagined that they saw Mormon masters behind every Indian

threat.

Honey Lakers attempted to shoot some Washoe for stealing cattle. Their effort proved such an

over-reaction that several Paiutes threatened to take sides with the Washoe. The Honey Lakers

used the incident in the press, attempting to import arms from California. James Crane claimed

that the Carson Valley’s Washoe Tribe and the Pitt River Indians, far to the North, had formed an

alliance and that they threatened to wipe out the whites of Honey Lake. The same concern would

be sent to Congress during 1858.

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The shooting created some sympathy for the Washoe among the

Paiutes. Ironically, though Ormsby had promoted an active

fighting force among the Paiutes in order to counter Uncle

Billy’s friendship with the Washoe, as the Paiutes continued in

that training, they ultimately found their enemy to be the Major

himself.

In the press, one of Honey Lake’s founding figures, Peter

Lassen, dismissed Crane’s claim of a grand Indian alliance. For

those who saw the effort to form a new territory threatened

every turn by renegade whites, even Lassen now seemed to be

helping the Mormons. He was shot dead by a rifle in the desert.

In the memorials and press releases, Crane and Ormsby

continued to charge that Mormons Indians had allied to

terrorize the Eastern Slope. Still, Local tensions abated

somewhat as the Paiutes and the Honey Lakers reestablished piece.

During November, with help from Washoe chief, Captain Jim, Billy Rogers captured one of the

Washoe wanted for the murder of the pack train operators. Before he could be tried, the suspect

broke loose and Roger’s man shot him down. In the California press and in Carson Valley,

Ormsby appears to have then spearheaded an effort to disarm Roger’s “private army.”

In December 1857, James Crane arrived in Washington. Initially he wrote that he felt pessimistic.

Crane’s professed pessimism may have been an effort to set the stage for a new escalation of the

efforts he and Ormsby had made to blame lawlessness along to Eastern Slope on the Mormons—

playing into rising national fears about the Mormons. During January 1858, Ormsby traveled to

California and drafted a new more frantic memorial to Congress. He referred to Brigham Young,

described bandits and alluded to the role of Lucky Bill, grouping the Mormons and the gambler

together as his enemies:

… Instigating the Indians all over the country to suffer none to pass but such as have the permit of the revolutionary commander.

He stated that, if Congress did not soon create a new territory, the residence of the Eastern Slope

would be forced to resort to illegal means.

Upon returning to Carson Valley, Ormsby held a meeting that Richard Allen satirized as “for the

purpose of promoting moral habits among the people.” Ormsby had, by now, lost much of his

Carson Valley support. He wrote Stephen Douglas, chairman of the Senate Committee On

Territories and called for help against the Mormon threat.

On the East of us we have for neighbors a people that are not only our declared enemies, but also the open enemies of the general government, and, if their past indicates anything, We are liable at any time to be driven from our homes and robbed of our property, and we need protection, we are American citizens, are we are not entitled to it?

Meanwhile, like many others in Carson Valley, Major Ormsby had run out of cash. He borrowed

money through his wife.

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Southern Help

In Washington, Crane possessed a significant friend—the

chairman of the House Committee on Territories, Virginia

Congressman William “Extra Billy” Smith. During the early

1850s, as an ally of California Senator Gwin, William Smith

had briefly attempted to establish a new political career in

San Francisco. Smith’s son, Caleb, had joined William

Walker in Nicaragua. In their congressional efforts, Smith

and Crane tied creation of Nevada Territory to the Mormon

rebellion and federal military efforts to displace Brigham

Young. In the long run, though Smith seemed squarely a

member of the plantation aristocracy, he was unable to exert

sufficient pressure on other Southern representatives in

Washington. Having seen California go abolitionist—anti-

slave—and with the strife in Kansas, they remained

unwilling to create a new western Territory that might, soon after, go non-slave.

However, Crane and Smith tried. Their name for the new territory reflected the support of those in

Honey Lake. Hoping to avoid California taxes, the Honey Lakers claimed that they lay beyond

California because they lay east of the Sierra Nevada’s crest. With his geographical dissertations,

James Crane perhaps provided this inventive reason for ignoring the law that put California’s

boundary at a specific longitude. So, it seems to have been Crane who named, "Sierra Nevada

Territory." Apparently finding this title too long, Smith and the House Committee on Territories

shortened the name to “Nevada.”

Profit, practicality and altruism remained inextricably mixed. Ormsby, Crane and Smith probably

all saw a personal interest in profiting from the mail that a federally funded stage line would carry

across the Great Basin. During the 1840s, in Virginia, William Smith had profited from mail

contracts and had been privately accused of graft-hence his nickname, “Extra Billy.” During

1858, presenting his argument for creation of Nevada Territory to Congress, Smith expressed his

concern for the safety of mail along the central overland route. James Crane began to make

contacts in the post office department, laying a foundation by which to reward the committee’s

friends through patronage.

That May, Crane wrote expressing optimism and recommended to Ormsby establishment of a

capital city for the new territory. As in his earlier pessimism, Cranes optimism seems to have been

calculated to influence opinion. Unfortunately for Crane and Smith, their vision of the wagon

road allowing many Americans to expand the West into multiple states—some slave—most

Southern politicians simply saw the West as they saw the North and saw no reason to support a

wagon road at such a northerly latitude.

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The Lynching of Lucky Bill

Seeking to control local assets, a land rush swept Carson Valley. Lucky Bill Thorington and his

friends gained control of vast acreage. By spring of 1858, Allen, Rogers and Thorington had put

into place a rival movement for territory. Allen called this “the Territory of Carson.” During June,

Allen wrote:

The new town of Harford...has recently been laid off about a mile north of the old Mormon settlement called Genoa. The location is certainly the most beautiful in the Valley for a town—a fine mill stream running through it. As the new wagon road commences the ascent of the Sierra Nevada at this point, Harford will undoubtedly be the Capital of the Territory of Carson.

The apostate Mormon traders began to plan their own constitutional convention. Allen proposed a

capital city, Harford, to be built just north of Genoa at the foot of Sierra Canyon. In Sierra

Canyon, Billy Rogers planed to build a sawmill, probably to provide lumber for the new town.

And, through Sierra Canyon, Rogers planned to build a wagon road from Carson Valley up to

Lake Bigler--today’s Lake Tahoe. In other words, Rogers was about to create a road on which

Ormsby and Crandall’s Pioneer Stage Line might be forced to pay a toll if they did not use the

unimproved trail through Carson Carson. A few years later, Daggett Pass became Kingsbury

Grade and provided just such an improved link and toll road, skirting Carson Canyon.

For the Honey Lakers and Ormsby, Thorington stood in the way. And, all their claims of threat by

an Indian alliance had produced neither guns from California nor support in Congress. Still, they

remained convinced that they were under-siege—if only from the chief of the desperadoes, Lucky

Bill. During May 1858, the Honey Lakers charged Lucky Bill with cattle theft and murder. Many

people knew Thorington as a notorious gambler and no one leapt to his rescue. This most

flamboyant individual along the Eastern Slope had long been suspected by Ormsby and his

vigilantes as the mastermind behind raids by white desperadoes out in the Great Basic. However,

the murder charge may have been untrue. The cattle theft little resembled the usual method for

stealing immigrant stock. The central location for organize white bandits appears to have been far

to the north, near Goose Creek. The charge may have been a frame-up by the very Honey Lakers

who committed the murder and who were allied with Ormsby.

To gain Thorington’s confidence and solicit information, the Honey Lakers sent a man to Carson

Valley. No doubt, drinking occurred. The informant learned from Thorington of Luther Olds and

of the local Border Ruffians who were stealing stock in Hope Valley at the stop of Carson

Canyon, driving them up Horse Thief Canyon to Horse Thief Meadow and then down the eastern

slope to Carson Valley for sale to immigrants in need of stock. At his house, south of Genoa, Olds

had boarded these men. Their title, “Border Ruffians” came from Kansas where it designated

hard-case whites with southern sentiments as, during 1856, bloody battles occurred there over the

territory’s vote on slavery.

Most significantly, Thorington revealed to the Honey Lake informant his desire to have Major

Ormsby killed. The informant related these details to Ormsby who then sent for a posse from

Honey Lake. During early June of 1858, some 30 strong, the Neversweats—as they called

themselves--rode in secret at night 150 miles south along the Eastern Slope from Honey Lake to

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Genoa. Early in the morning they arrived before Ormsby’s house at the old Mormon station. The

Major showed the posse where to find Thorington’s house, down the street in Genoa. The posse

surprised and arrested Thornton. They tied the gambler and took him 11 miles north to Richard

Sides’ barn—the same barn where Sides and his friends had stood off Orson Hyde’s posse, a year

and a half earlier.

The posse also arrested Lute Olds and others suspected of stealing stock. The jury fined Olds

$875 and told him to leave the valley. While the trial was underway, the posse built a scaffold for

Thorington. The guilty verdict by the “people’s jury” came as no surprise. Weeping, the boy

assigned to drive the buckboard out from under the noose could not do the job. Lucky Bill sang a

popular song:

Tis the last rose of summer left blooming all alone,

All her lovely companions are faded and gone.

No flower of her kindred, no rosebud is nigh,

To reflect back her blushes, to give sigh for sigh.

The Neversweats stood about with their bowie knives. Lucky Bill said, “I didn’t live like a hog

and I ain’t goin’ to die like a hog”. As later described by R. Young:

When the time came they placed him in a wagon with armed guards on either side and drove to the gallows which was erected for the purpose while the trial was in progress. Before he was hanged he told some friend present to tell Billy Rodgers that if he had been there this would not have happened. He pulled off his black neck tie and tossed it away.

Lucky Bill stepped off the buckboard. It was late in the afternoon. The sun lay just above the

snowy peaks of the Sierra Nevada, a few miles to the west. In a few minutes, at this altitude, the

temperature would drop as the mountain shadow spread across the valley floor.

Major Ormsby did not attend the lynch trial. It emboldened him and his followers. During the

trial his supporters formally declared themselves the local People’s Committee—vigilantes—as

they had long acted and sought to declare. After the lynching the vigilantes attempted to suppress

the evidence showing that Thorington had threatened Ormsby. However, at the gambler’s request,

a partial transcript of the trial found its way into a California newspaper. It revealed the threat

Thorington had made against Ormsby and implied that this had been the cause for the execution.

No one came to Thorington’s aid. After the lynching of Lucky Bill, Allen described Carson Valley

apostate Mormon settlers as cowardly and self-indulgent. In both Salt Lake City and Placerville

men gathered, upset that one of the Far West most popular character have been killed. For a year,

as a warning to their enemies, the vigilantes left Lucky Bill’s scaffold beside the immigrant trail

at the north end of Carson Valley.

...the people restrain the violence of bad men by preserving, in all its revolting proportions, the gallows upon which Lucky Bill (unlucky at last) expiated offenses alleged against him. It stands close by the roadside....

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The Founding Of Carson City

The U.S. Postmaster, a southerner, funded a regular overland mail stage across the southern part

of the nation into Los Angeles. When his bid for the southern route failed and despite lack of

sufficient funding, George Chorpenning began to run coaches over the central route-between Salt

Lake and Genoa. In Genoa, Chorpenning’s overland mail connected to Crandall’s Pioneer Line.

Businessmen from Placerville and San Francisco began to string telegraph wire from Placerville,

East over the Sierra Nevada. Hoping that the central route might yet receive funding, these

businessmen refrained from publicly criticizing the U.S. postmaster’s southern choice.

After the lynch trial at Sides’ barn, Henry Van Sickle paid Luther Old’s $875 fine to the vigilantes

and took 39 cattle from Olds as security. However the vigilantes then wanted Henry Van Sickles

to pay a $150 fine for expenses incurred during their effort to banish Olds. Van Sickles refused.

During mid-July, the vigilantes seized the 39 cows. In response, Van Sickle and Thorington’s

friends formed an anti-vigilante group.

Fearing for his safety, Luther Olds fled the valley. From fortified barns 3 miles apart, the anti-

vigilantes faced off against the vigilantes-both sides armed with shotguns. After exchanging

messages, the vigilantes backed down and returned Van Sickle’s cattle. Alarmed by the situation,

the anti-vigilantes sent a petition to Salt Lake City. They asked for the reestablishment of Carson

County, Utah, and appointment of a new probate judge. A year later, Richard Allen wrote:

About a year ago, James M. Crane, being then in Washington, wrote to his “next friend” in this Territory, informing him that the Territory of Nevada would be established upon a certain day in December last, and requesting him to selection a capital for this embroyo empire of the West. Accordingly, the “next friend,” being at war with the inhabitants of Genoa, proceeded to Eagle Valley, fifteen miles north, and drawing at right angles across a desert a number of lines, some distance apart, he named the intervening spaces streets and blocks, and to the whole he gave the name of “Carson City.”

Allen saw Ormsby’s hand in the creation of what would become the state’s capital. Today, in

Carson City, local history often ignores this political situation and focuses on the simple actions.

A week after the anti-vigilantes sent off their petition, three men from Downieville arrived along

long the Eastern Slope. On August 12, 1858, in Eagle Valley, for $300 and the promise of another

thousand dollars, John J. Musser, Frank Proctor and Abram Curry bought roughly 1000 acres

from J. Mankin. From departing Mormon colonist, during the previous September, Mankin had

purchased this land at bargain prices. The three men bought

the land to build a city and soon named it, “Carson City.”

Circumstances suggest that Musser, Proctor and Curry bought

Mankin’s Eagle Valley Ranch on behalf of William Ormsby

as part of the effort underway by Ormsby, Crane, and the

vigilantes. The previous spring, from Washington, James

Crane had written to Ormsby suggesting that he establish a

capital city for the proposed Nevada Territory. Through his

brother, John Ormsby, the Major may have solicited Musser

and Proctor as men who could found the new city the face of

opposition. They came from Downieville in Sierra County,

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known as a bastion of lingering support for San Francisco’s vigilante committee.

The vigilantes needed a capital and they wanted to be well armed, perhaps fearing an attack by

the apostate Mormons in Genoa. The founding of Carson City coincided with two successive

reports from stage drivers claiming Indian attacks upon the Overland Mail near the sink of the

Mary River. (Today known as the Humboldt Sink.). Both reports were false. The stage driver who

gave the first report had solicited guns and ammunition from the Salt Lake City Indian

Superintendent, Jacob Forney. He then fabricated a story of an attack and turned the guns over to

the local state agent-presumably William Ormsby. In Placerville, the correspondent for the Alta

California then wrote a series of articles blaming the incident on Forney.

Abram Curry had worked as a carpenter. Though, initially, the least of the three, Curry ultimately

became Carson City’s principal booster and builder. At the onset, Ormsby’s interest seems to have

lain primarily in John Musser and Frank Proctor. Musser had served as a founding member of the

first volunteer militia formed in the Sierra Nevada and as Sierra County District Attorney. Proctor

had served as an undersheriff. Both had been active in the anti-Catholic American Party—

champioing the supremacy of “native” white Protestants. Soon after he arrived in Eagle Valley,

Musser began to play an active role in Ormsby’s vigilante committee.

Those opposed to Ormsby and the vigilantes tried to thwart the founding of Carson City. On

August 13, a resident of Carson Valley, Louis Holdridge, attempted to buy the Eagle Valley ranch

from Mankin and have Mankin predate the sale to June-thus negating the parcel’s sale to Musser,

Proctor and Curry. Around the same time, Richard Allen rushed to San Francisco. He found Billy

Rogers and secured full ownership of the Harford property. These efforts did nothing to stop the

creation of Carson City.

A second report of an Indian attack soon appeared in the press. The account came from men who

had helped perpetuate the first fraud. They apparently stripped their own stage and sold their

mules to Native Americans near Goose Creek. The second report brought in a shipment of Sharps

rifles from California.

Ormsby became the first to profit from the purchase of Americans Eagle Valley Ranch. Four

months after the purchase of the ranch, Musser, Proctor and Curry sold a good portion of Carson

City to William Ormsby. He paid one dollar. This appears to have been part of the original deal.

As later described by Curry:

...I procured the services of John F. (Jerry) Long, Esq. to survey and draft a town plot, agreeing to give Major Ormsby all the ground lying between King and Fifth Streets....

To Mark Stebbins, the Major paid another dollar for a second large parcel. Eight months later,

during August 1859, William Ormsby sold his Carson City land to a real estate developer for

$1000. For posterity, Curry later forgot to mention Ormsby and claimed the the founding of

Carson City came because lots in Genoa were too expensive.

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Provisional Nevada Territory

Federal Judge Cradlebaugh had expected to arrive in Carson County during Spring. Citing a “a

loyal and gallant few” who would support the federal judge, Richard Allen began to look forward

to that arrival with great anticipation. However, Cradlebaugh’s removal to western Utah suffered

a delay when the judge lost his military support. Without bloodshed, Governor Cumming had

asserted federal control over Utah. President Buchanan seems to have worried that Cradlebaugh’s

pursuit of Mormon criminals might undermine this peace.

Further, as a southerner, Buchanan did not want to undermine the principle of local self-

determination, often called “popular sovereignty”. In attacking Mormon polygamy, he and others

sought to reserve the idea of popular sovereignty as a pillar supporting slavery in the slave states.

He had felt pressured to send federal forces to Salt Lake, particularly by the anti-polygamy

campaign of the newly formed Republican Party. That party was also assailing slavery. However,

they were tying it to slavery and to the idea of popular sovereignty as a whole.

Having seized Salt Lake in 1858, Buchanan wanted to avoid further conflict with the Mormons.

He instructed General Johnston to withdraw military support for Cradlebaugh. This ended the

Judge’s effort to prosecute Mormons for the Mountain Meadow massacre and threatened

Cradlebaugh’s departure for Carson County.

By the end of August 1858, at least for the moment, Ormsby's vigilante committee seemed to

have bested its opposition. In fact, though little organized, opposition to the vigilantes soon found

a new focus as Utah Territory attempted to reassert control over Carson County. Utah Territory

had passed from the Mormon Church into the hands of the military and President Buchanan’s

newly appointed non-Mormon governor, Alfred Cumming. During September, in response to the

anti-vigilante petition of July, Cumming revived Carson County and appointed John Childs, a

Carson Valley trader, as probate judge. During October, Childs attempted to hold an election for

Carson County. The vigilantes sabotage the election by running, winning and refusing to serve. In

November, Indian Agent Frederick Dodge wrote Governor Cumming:

It appears that the Lynch Law party have consummated their desire in repudiating the organization of the County. The same party have now addressed a letter to the President. And from which I have obtained the enclosed complication of falsehoods and which I cannot permit to go to the President unknown to your excellency. What would the President think of those in authority to allow such a state of things to exist. He may think it is true, if it goes uncontradicted. It is certainly casting direct reflections on your excellency, Dr. Forney and myself and probably is intended for that purpose if they could get it there secretly. I flatter myself that they will have to rise much earlier in the morning to consummate much without my knowledge in this locality.

That December, a visitor described visiting the Major in Genoa where they joked about the

Mormon practice of “sealing”, in which families are joined for eternity within that Church.

Night had spread itself over the land, but I soon found myself in excellent quarters, besides a warm welcome from our mutual friends Maj. Ormsby and his estimable lady. This modern Genoa needs no description, it is the well known Old “Mormon Station.” The Station itself is in decline. I took a look through its dingy apartments, remarking to my companion that the rooms had never been ceiled. ‘No,’ he answered, ‘but there has been enough ‘sealing’ perpetuated within those walls to answer all practical purposes for

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the time being. The people, like most of our frontiersmen, are mostly a hardy, brave and hospitable class—men of real nerve, with some exceptions, of course.

During December, a newspaper, the Territorial Enterprise began publication in Genoa. At the

height of their power, the vigilance committee met again. Ormsby chaired the meeting and

offered a series of resolutions. As published in the Territorial Enterprise, the preamble began with

a defensive profession of patriotism;

We are law-abiding people; we love our country; we are Americans and not traders….

Ormsby’s resolutions threatened probate Judge John Childs with the committee’s retribution

should the judge attempt to enforce Utah law. The committee appointed Ormsby to visit Stephen

Kinsey, John Reese’s nephew, and obtain Carson County’s land claim book—symbolic of

settlement and government. Warned of this plan, Kinsey sent the book to Governor Cumming in

Salt Lake City.

In a letter to the California press, Ormsby described the vigilantes as a “grand jury”. Alluding

only to the effort to banish Lute Olds, he painted a rosy picture of the grand jury’s actions.

To show you the happy and successful workings of the system, I will speak to you that in five sessions they have held it has been found necessary to order but one arrest--a truly gratifying state of affairs when compared to those which heretofore obtained.

Ormsby asserted that he could bring law and order in the face of Mormon lawlessness—his a core

argument going back to 1857. Through winter, Judge Childs stood up to threats by the vigilance

committee. Childs’ argument that Utah represented the legitimate law gathered little local

support. Meanwhile, Governor Cumming and those supporting Childs grimly described the

situation along the Eastern Slope as “anarchy.” Seeking to promote formation of Nevada territory,

the Territorial Enterprise soon found itself straddling a fine line between the vigilantes and those

early settlers that Richard Allen called “apostate Mormons.”

Meanwhile, in Washington, having unsuccessfully attempted to tie the effort for Nevada Territory

to suppression of the 1858 Mormon rebellion, in 1859 James Crane and William Smith came up

with a new reasoning. They presented the House with a plan that would have created Nevada

Territory out of western Utah Territory and have abolished the Eastern portion of Utah territory,

including it into “Jefferson Territory”—created in Oct. 1859 out of today’s Colorado as a pro-

Democrat, anti-Republican effort.

This new plan met with no greater success in the House. In the East, most Southern representative

did not share in Crane and Smith’s visionary scheme for the West. They had good reason to

doubt. During summer of 1858, many people expected that Oregon would vote to allow slavery.

However, Oregon had voted against slavery. Thus, by 1859, many leading Southerners had lost

hope that the West could be persuaded to support the South and believed that Nevada territory

would never vote proslavery. Throughout the congressional session of 1859, William Smith found

that the Speaker of the House refused to recognize his efforts to speak on behalf of creating the

new territory.

During June 1859, James Crane returned to Carson City and expressed his frustration at

continued failure by Congress to form Nevada territory. Ormsby and Crane scheduled a

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constitutional convention for mid July, in Genoa, so as to secede from Utah—to simply declare a

territory at the local level. Without federal sanction, they proposed to separate and create a

provisional territorial government. They scheduled an election for early July and nominated

James Crane to remain the region’s delegate to Congress. Allen commented:

The thing has been gotten up by a few men who, after trying to get into office all their lived in other countries, seem to think their only chances lie creating offices for themselves.

By coincidence but perhaps more by plan, Crane’s return came just as men in Gold Canyon

announced Ophir find—a rich, gold bearing quartz lead that later became known as the Comstock

Lode. Crane gave a speech in Gold Canyon and the separatists held a big celebration in Genoa.

The celebrants imbibed quantities of strychnine whiskey, an alkaloid beverage with effects similar

to cocaine or amphetamines. At his station next to Carson City in Eagle Valley, local musician

and distiller Dutch Nick Ambrose had branded it “Tarantula Juice”. He soon changed the name of

his station of “Empire.” Allen wrote:

The fine cannon were three times discharged, and considerable strychnine whiskey imbibed. The success of the Territorial bill was drunk, and finally the Judge discovered that there is a certain spot within the limits of the proposed Territory containing one thousand acres, worth at least four hundred thousand dollar an acre….In the morning the Judge departed for Eagle Valley, where also he has an admirer.

East of Eagle Valley, Gold Canyon miners began to record their claims. News of the find began to

appear in the California press. However, through the summer, few people seem to have discussed

the silver in the lode. However, men in San Francisco did not believe the assays done along the

Eastern Slope.

Meanwhile, Crane’s nomination for delegate met strong opposition in the other candidate,

Frederick Dodge. Earlier in the spring, Carson Valley Indian agent Frederick Dodge had

investigated the murder of Peter Lassen in the Black Rock Desert, 150 miles east of Honey like.

Dodge asserted that Indians had not killed Lassen, as alleged by the Honey Lakers. The Indian

agent suggested that whites had killed Lassen. Though

Dodge did not go so far, the implication is that the

Honey Lakers who had accompanied Lassen while

prospecting had killed him. It may be that Lassen was

murdered because he had begun to support annexation

of Honey Lake by Utah. Making this assertion,

Frederick Dodge found strong favor among those

opposed to the vigilantes. Richard Allen, John Childs

and others nominated Frederick Dodge as their

opposition delegate to Congress.

During the July election, Dodge initially received more

votes than Crane. In response, the vigilantes kept the

polls open for two more weeks-until they could get

enough votes to declare Crane the victor. Shortly

afterwards, supporters of the vigilantes attended the

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constitutional convention. Of these men, half opposed formation of a provisional government.

However the assignment of “delegate votes” gave each of several Honey Lake men more than

one vote. This and canvassing of immigrants in wagons on the trail to California swung the tally

to the separatists and Crane. The convention declared Nevada a provisional territory and elected

Isaac Roop as Governor. Through the fall, both factions charged fraud. Allen recommended

Captain Jim of the Washoe tribe and wrote:

The last thing done by this august body of patriots was to canvass the votes cast for Delegate to Congress. This was the crowning act of glory, although it was well known and admitted by all, previous to the meeting of the Convention, that Major Dodge received a majority of about 150 votes over Crane, his opponent—although proof of fraud was produced against Crane’s friends, in keeping the polls open two week on the Humboldt, for the “accommodation of the traveling public”—although 122 votes were brought in from the Humboldt, where nobody lives except the few employees of the Mail Company—notwithstanding all these facts, Crane was declared duly elected….

At the end of August, Judge John Cradlebaugh arrived in eastern Utah as a curious side-effect of

President Buchanan’s effort to assert federal control over the Mormons. In eastern Utah,

Cradlebaugh attempted to prosecute Mormons, including those involved in the Mountain

Meadow massacre. During January, in Salt Lake, perhaps hoping to remove the judge from the

Eastern part of the territory, Utah’s Mormon dominated legislature reassigned Cradlebaugh to

faraway Carson County. Allen wrote of his arrival and the reaction of the People’s Committee

with their new, separatist territory.

Judge Cradlebaugh intends to reside here and hold regular sessions, and they fear it will interfere with their operations. Some anxiety is felt here as to the fate of Uncle Sam: those at the head of the scheme of separate government, which I have heretofore mentioned to you, express their determination to put down all outside interference, and they may, perhaps, consider this officious intermeddling of our venerable Uncle, as an act of hostility.

The owners of the Territorial Enterprise split over these events. Now in the hands of a separatist

and with a new editor from Honey Lake, the newspaper moved from Genoa to Carson City.

William Ormsby sold his Carson City land for $1000 and began construction of a new two-story

hotel at the center of town where the stage line arrived from the East. He planned to use the large

upstairs room as an assembly hall for the new provisional Nevada Territorial Legislature.

The Separatist Effort Begins To Fall Apart

By fall of 1859, the three valleys along the eastern slope and the adjacent mining area in Gold

Canyon lay poised for one of the biggest mineral booms in the nation’s history. Still, the local

factions continued to play out their drama—roles that had begun to assume a tired, repetitive

quality with little direction. No one realized that a terrible winter also loomed ahead.

Late in August of 1859, Richard Allen seems to have ridden in secret to Camp Floyd, outside Salt

Lake City. He apparently secured for Judge Cradlebaugh an armed escort west to Carson Valley.

This required that General Johnston reinterpret President Buchanan's prohibition of military

support for Cradlebaugh and allow soldiers traveling to California at the end of their service to

accompany the judge across the Great Basin. ! 32

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During early September, as Judge Cradlebaugh arrived, the separatists held a hasty election to

ratify creation of the provisional territory. Cradlebaugh soon became the center for a third,

smaller faction that included Frederick Dodge and Richard Allen. This group did like the

provisional effort but did not want a return to rule by Mormon Utah. This third faction had a little

immediate effect. Nonetheless, the presence of a federal judge and the argument that Utah legally

owned the Eastern Slope began to have an affect on new arrivals as well as on some of the

separatists--men who championed law and order.

From Salt lake, Cradlebaugh returned Carson County’s most important legal record-the land

claim book. Utah probate Judge John Child again attempted to hold an election for Carson

County, Utah. Again, the anti-Mormon, vigilante separatist faction sabotaged the election. While

some of the separatists saw Cradlebaugh as a potential ally against the Mormons, James Crane

began to assert that they should resist the federal judge’s authority. During mid September, the

press began to talk of silver in the Ophir find. After the Grosh brothers abandoned their cabin,

Henry Comstock took it up and may have inherited their record. A flurry of new prospecting had

hit Gold Canyon. At the behest of others, Henry Comstock drove a wagon of ore to the Bay area

for assay, the big money was arriving. During early September, while Comstock was gone with

the wagon of ore, Crane and Ormsby seem to have sent Dr. O.H. Pearson to lay out Virginia City

on Comstock’s property. Pierson later claimed that Henry Comstock gave him the land. Comstock

later wrote, describing the taking of his land:

I am a regular born mountaineer, and did not know the intrigues of civilized rascality. I am not ashamed to acknowledge that.

For James Crane, the Ophir Find or Comstock Lode represented a great opportunity—one that he

and Ormsby may have anticipated for years. Left up to Crane and with more luck than he

ultimately possessed, provisional Nevada territory might well have become an independent

republic well funded by its own mineral wealth, the inland empire of filibuster dreams. However,

Crane was not a man of the people. Western miners generally disliked the plantation aristocracy

and associated the name, “Virginia”, with them. Virginia City may have been named after the

claims called the Virginia Digging. However, it would probably have been Crane and Pierson,

who secured the cite from Comstock, who named Virginia City. Both were from Virginia.

Crane probably wanted to tax the miners. On the Comstock, among miners, opposition to taxation

would have been intense. Such an effort could easily have lead to Ormsby and Crane steering

provisional Nevada Territory toward quasi-independence from the nation. He had written of

California:

… Congress would never consent to give us any continental road until we were determined to withhold the precious metals of this country, from the use of the general government….

Two days after the naming of Virginia City, during dinner with Orson Hyde’s tax collector,

Charles Daggett, James Crane fell over dead. The telegraph stated that Crane had suffered an

apoplectic fit. To this day, the man who seems to have named Sierra Nevada territory and who

suggested founding its capital, Judge James Crane, may lie buried somewhere beneath the

sagebrush in unmarked grave along the western edge of Carson City. Whether, he actually died of

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natural causes remains a good question. Crane’s obituary

in the Territorial Enterprise sounds as if written by

Ormsby:

Whereas, James M. Crane, has been suddenly called from among us by the Supreme Ruler of the Universe to his final resting place; and said deceased in his lifetime having occupied many important positions and trusts within the gift of his fellow-citizens, and has in his discharge of them all proved to his friends, and shown to the world, that he was a high minded, honorable and worthy man; and the said deceased was, at the time of his death, the Representative of this people to the Congress of the United States and in which position he discharged the duties devolving upon him with credit to himself and honor to his constituents; therefore,

Resolved, That in the death of James M. Crane we have lost one of our best citizens, and that the people of this Territory, in mass, deeply mourn his loss.

Resolved, That we deeply sympathize with his relations and friends in their affliction.

Resolved, That we will, in a body, attend the funeral of the deceased.

Isaac Roop later suggested this epitaph for Crane's tombstone:

An honest man, the noblest work of God.

Meanwhile, Judge Cradlebaugh and Frederick Dodge traveled to San Francisco where Dodge left

for the East. During October, Cradlebaugh set up his court In Carson Valley. The Territorial

Enterprise’s ousted owner, Alfred James, became Cradlebaugh’s clerk. In Carson City, as it

resumed with a purely separatist staff, the Territorial Enterprise attacked Frederick Dodge. The

newspaper stated that recognizing Cradlebaugh’s authority would

lead to the reestablishment of Utah territory, a preposterous claim,

given Cradlebaugh’s opposition to the Mormons. Then, suddenly, the

paper’s "fighting editor" decided to leave town and the Territorial

Enterprise adopted a more neutral stand.

To replace James Crane as delegate to Washington, the separatists

elected John Musser. The maneuvering continued. Alfred James

refused to certify the results and incurred the committee’s wrath.

However, the committee had begun to split between supporters of

Cradlebaugh—who had the mantle of legal authority-- and those

who saw the federal judge as a threat to their ambitions of empire.

The anti-Ormsby faction in Carson Valley predominated in a Grand

Jury Report under federal Judge Cradlebaugh, blasted Mormon rule,

completely ignored Ormsby’s Territorial Effort and called for Congress

to create a Nevada Territory--revisiting the idea upon which Ormsby and Crane had given up on.

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Ultimately, the separatists seem have been able to do little except hold

meetings and pass resolutions. During December, separately,

Cradlebaugh and Musser traveled to Washington. Cradlebaugh wanted

Congress to abolish Utah territory entirely and annex the land to

Nevada Territory. Musser promoted the plan for dividing Utah into

Jefferson and Nevada territories.

Along the Eastern Slope, the provisional effort was running out of

steam. During December, Isaac Roop called a meeting of the

provisional legislature. However, heavy snow and the

mining boom proved great distractions from politics. The

Nevada Territorial Legislature failed to obtain sufficient

attendance. It never met. At the end of the year, William

Ormsby attempted to form a provisional municipal

constitution for Carson City. When Ormsby put the idea to a

vote, Carson City's new arrivals defeated the

measure. Eager young miners had little taste for

financial intrigue.

As winter set in everyone became preoccupied

with land speculation, preparing for the next

season’s anticipate flood of mineral seekers.

That winter, food and lodging grew short.

Heavy snows covered the valley floors and closed the passes--threatening starvation. During

January, Ormsby’s friend O.H. Pearson laid out a town at the foot of Geiger Grade, at the Western

entrance to Gold Canyon-probably on land Ormsby had purchased there in 1857. During March,

as the weather began to clear, based on the parcel that they have bought from Ormsby, Sears and

Thompson drew up the first Carson City map. Interestingly, they labeled the city as lying in Utah

rather than in Nevada. Allen commented upon Carson City:

This great city is remarkable as being the place of residence of the eminent statesmen of western Utah, men who are so bent on possessing political power that they are eternally getting up meetings and creating offices for their own use and benefit.

Ormsby presented the developers with a new prospect for a city. During April, for $10,000,

Ormsby sold the land he had bought at the southern entrance to Gold Canyon-near the modern

Dayton. Sears, Thompson and others planed the town of “Mineral Rapids”. From this proposed

town, they intended to run a railroad up Gold Canyon to the mines.

The Major had high hopes for personal profit. He owned stock in the Crown Point mine in Gold

Canyon. The Major could expect that, after his recent land sale, he would soon have sufficient

cash to participate in extraction of gold and silver from the Comstock lode’s quarts veins.

Hope for federal funding of the central overland road faded further. Crandall sold the Pioneer

Line. As the passes cleared in early 1859, Pony Express riders replaced Chorpenning’s coaches

across the Great Basin and took over his stations. The Pony Express represented a temporary

solution. Many in the Far West still longed for a central overland road and regular stages from the

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East. Chorpenning would later spend years trying

to get reimbursed by the Federal Government for

delivering the mail across the Great Basin for

periods during the 1850s.

The Major Rides North

Along the Eastern Slope, May sees warm days

and chilly nights, beautiful weather, occasional

rains and, often, high winds—the Washoe Zephyr

that sweeps down from the Sierra Nevada,

roaring like a fast train. The temperature can

move 40 degree between day and night. Spring

of 1860, men were planning for the coming

summer and trade with those traveling the roads.

Government again seemed like a possibility. Profit lay around the corner.

One might hope the desert would be a blank slate upon which they could write. However, the

desert spaces have a life and power of their own.

In early 1860, the Eastern Slope was poised to reap the biggest hard rock gold find in the nation’s

history. California's placer gold required that men pan for dust in cold mountain water. Long-toms

and then hydraulic hoses did not change the form of the gold—only improved the efficiency and

increased the destructiveness of their techniques. For many years, Gold Canyon miners employed

placer mining methods--trying to pan or long-tom gold where not much water ran. They

accumulate the crushed rock and waited for winter rains. Or they hauled it to the Carson River.

By 1856, they had brought in Chinese workers to dig a canal from the Carson River into Gold

Canyon and had created what came to be called Johntown--perhaps named for the stereotypical

label applied to the Chinese, “John Chinaman”. That term had been used as the title of a gold rush

song published in California during 1855.

Announcement of Gold Canyon’s Ophir Lead, soon known as the Comstock Lode, changed all

this. For years, off and on, the Grosh brothers had lived in Gold Canyon where they tried

unsuccessfully to extract silver from the rock that lay all around. Nearby miners all probably

knew that modern science could somehow extract silver and gold directly from hard rock leads,

particularly if funded by eastern or European financiers. Placer techniques were inadequate to

collect the wealth that they saw in Gold Canyon.

At the same time, many young men from California’s placer diggings remained ignorant of hard

rock mining. Through the early part of 1860, between snowstorms, despite warnings by the

California press that they might face starvation and that hard rock leads required major

investment, men arrived full of hope that, on any sandy ridge, they might find riches. Anxious for

spring, they roamed across the desert where Indians were rumored to guard legendary mineral

treasure.

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Meanwhile, the Paiutes were reassessing their situation. For years, several of their prominent

leaders, Chief Truckee and War Chief Winnemucca, had sought adjustment by the tribe to white

ways. Other leaders opposed this. Now they saw white miners over-running their lands in every

direction and the number of native voice in opposition became more numerous.

In the midst of this, everything fell apart. According to Sarah Winnemucca’s account, on May 7,

1860, along the eastern portion of the Carson River, at their station, east of present day

Bucklands, the Williams brothers captured several Paiute girls and, in the words of one settler,

“ravished” them. She wrote:

Two little girls about twelve years old went out in the woods to dig roots, and did not come back, and so their parents went in search of them, and not finding them, all my people who were there came to their help, and very thoroughly searched, and found trails which led up to the house of two traders named Williams, on Carson River, near by the Indian camp. But these men said they had not seen the children, and told my people to come into the house and search it; and this they did, as they thought thoroughly. After a few days they sorrowfully gave up all search, and their relations had nearly given them up for dead, when one morning an Indian rode up to the cabin of the Williamses. In those days the settlers did not hesitate to sell us guns and ammunition whenever we could buy, so these brothers proposed to buy the Indian’s horse as soon as he rode up. They offered him a gun, five cans of powder, five boxes of caps, five bars of lead, and after some talk the trade was made. The men took the horse, put him in the stable and closed the door, then went into the house to give him the gun, etc. They gave him the gun, powder, and caps, but would not give him the lead, and because he would not take a part, he gave back what he had taken from them. and went out to the bar to take his horse. Then they set their dog upon him. When bitten by the dog he began halloing, and so his surprise he heard children’s voices answer him, and he knew at once it was the lost children. He made for his camp as fast as he could, and told what had happened, and what he had heard. Brother Natchez and others went straight to the cabin of the Williams brothers. The father demanded the children. They denied having them, and after talking quite awhile denied it again, when all at once the brother of the children knocked one of the Williamses down with his gun, and raised his gun to strike the other, but before he could do so, one of the Williams brothers stooped down and raised a trap-door, one which he had been standing. This was a surprise to my people, who had never seen anything of the kind. The father first peeped down, but could see nothing; then he went down and found his children lying on a little bed with their mouths tied up with rags. He tore the rags away and brought them up. When my people saw their condition, they at once killed both brothers and set fire to the house. Three days after the news was spread as usual. ‘The bloodthirsty savages had murdered two innocent, hard-working, industrious, kind-hearted settlers.

There are other possible motives for the killings. One of these involves increased grazing along

the central overland route. The Paiutes were becoming increasingly concerned with whites

bringing animals to scattered grassy places—spring, meadows, sinks. This may have been a more

significant motive for them than the kidnapping of a girl. In other words, despite Ormsby’s

advocacy for a self-sustaining inland empire, on the even of the continent’s most significant gold

boom, the situation was deteriorating as locals—whites and Paiutes—faced scarce local

resources.

Upon hearing of the killings, even before they knew the full details, some whites urged caution in

the matter.

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… It is much feared that the belligerent whites will fall in with inoffensive Indians, and get involved in difficulties that may hereafter awaken a spirit of retaliation and lead to serious troubles.

On May 8, a Pony Express rider reported the killings to Virginia City. Charles Forman wrote:

He reported that there was an Indian outbreak in that section, that several men had been murdered at Williams Station and the station burned, and that all the women an children about were gathered at Buckland’s block-house, where they were surrounded. The report caused intense excitement and hundreds of men at once volunteered to got to the relief of these women and children, and signed the roll that night. But in the morning, when matters were a little cooler, they were not so anxious to go, and the project seemed likely to fall through. Some of us, however, talked the matter over and decided that something must be done, that some of us must go down and try to relieve the women and children, and bury the murdered men. We had no object further than this at the time....

On May 10, the telegraph flashed word to California of a “massacre “at the Williams station.

The news of the Indian massacre at Miller's Station, at the Big Bend of the Carson River, night before last, created great excitement. A company was organized here last night, numbering thirty mounted men, under the command of Major Ormsby, who left here this morning, at 8 o'clock, for the scene of action. By an express, this morning, we learn that the Indians have fortified themselves at Ragtown, and threaten a big fight. Everything in the shape of firearms, from Allen's 'pepper-boxes' to U.S. muskets, is in requisition.

The situation was ripe for tragedy. Ormsby’s provisional government was floundering. He seems

to have intended to show American force to Paiutes and restore order. In fact, it should be noted,

William Ormsby did not hate Native Americans. Sara Winnemucca described him as the Paiutes’

“best good friend”. And, Ormsby had argued in the press:

It is folly to suppose for a single moment that these people, swindled out of what they have been led to believe was justly and rightfully their own through the provident measures of government in their behalf, and of which they are well-informed should not feel deeply aggrieved…

However, for William Ormsby, as for many men during his day as well as in our own time,

American justice did not stem so much from the Constitution so much as from the Declaration of

Independence, the right of men to govern themselves—government by the people. If a bunch of

white thieves plagued the region, then Ormsby would form a committee and lynch Lucky Bill. If

a bunch of Indians murdered traders, then Ormsby would attempt to lead armed men to capture

them. He would presumably hold another vigilante trial, asserting the authority and legitimacy of

his separatist territorial government, restoring law and order and asserting government directly by

the people.

Like his hero, William Walker, Ormsby turned a blind eye to the drunken self-serving attitude of

many whites that now volunteered to join him in pursuit of the Paiutes. Newly arrived gold and

silver seekers from California provided a ready mob of hotheads. And Ormsby’s political goals

were set. A hard winter, restless minors and the ability to spread panic through the telegraph wire

set the stage for Ormsby’s fatal miscalculation. Word of a “massacre” spread through the grog

shops of Virginia City and Carson City.

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On the morning of May 10, having heard that Ormsby

intended to write East, Judge Cradlebaugh rode to Carson

City accompanied by men from Genoa. That afternoon,

the two groups arrived at the Williams station, along the

Carson River’s Big Bend. A third group arrived from

Virginia City. Seeing that the traders at the station had not

buried their dead and judging them by this, Cradlebaugh

declined to chase down the Paiutes. Ormsby requested a

commission to pursue the Pirates from the federal judge

but Cradlebaugh refused. Cradlebaugh and his group rode

back to Virginia City where they delivered an ominous

last message from the Major.

We have found tracks where stock had been run off, and we intend to follow them up.

Calling themselves “rangers,” Ormsby and about 100

other white followed tracks from Paiute horses north

through the sagebrush towards Pyramid Lake. Camped

overnight on their way, probably around a campfire,

Ormsby asked the men to appoint him their overall

commander. They refused. Newly arrived miners felt confident. They might discover the treasure

that the Paiutes were said to hide. With its great vistas, endless sagebrush and scattered ranges,

Nevada seemed a magical land awaiting the touch of American ingenuity. Some declared that

they would have, “an Injun for breakfast and his pony to ride.”

Similarly, the voices of conciliation among the Pirates did not prevail over the voices of armed

resistance as Paiutes spotted “rangers” riding toward the tribe. At Pyramid Lake, since April, the

Paiutes had gathered to debate the merits of war against whites. The tribe had survived two harsh

winters, resented encroachment by white ranchers, looked up at the desert ranges, saw the pinon

pine being cut for firewood and were unhappy that Virginia City miners would not share gold

taken from Native American land. Alone among the Chiefs, the young Winnemucca, Numaga,

tried to convince the other Paiute leaders of the futility in resistance:

Your enemies are like sands in the bed of the rivers; when taken away they only give place for more to come and settle there.

On May 12, 1860, the Territorial Enterprise urged caution and criticized the fear mongers who

were stirring up trouble.

During the past week, the entire community has, we think, been needlessly alarmed by the reports which have been brought in of the massacre at William's station. We cannot see the sense or propriety of men who should act as if they were men, and living in communities like Virginia and Carson cities, which contain large populations and are safe from Indian depredations, running around and scaring every female in the country, and by their acts, justly entitle themselves to the right to wear petticoats for the rest of their days.

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'We admit that three men have been killed at Williams' station and when the authors of the outrage can be found they should be punished; and we further say, that properly organized companies should be sent out to ferret out the perpetrators of the deed.

That same afternoon, above the Truckee River near Pyramid Lake, armed mostly with short range

weapons, shotguns and revolvers, the “rangers” faced the Paiutes who held mostly bows and trade

rifles. The Rangers halted some 500 yards from the Paiutes. Capt. McDonald from Virginia City

asked a man named Elliot to take a closer look through his telescopic rifle. They thought they

spotted one brandishing a battle-ax. It may have been a peace pipe. In the Territorial Enterprise

article, it was later implied that Elliot then fired the first shot.

One man, while the company was forming, shot an Indian with a telescope rifle. The Indians then commenced firing on the party. The order was then given to charge. With three cheers the men charged up the hill, dispersing the foe; the Indians retreating until they got the whites into a position which suited them; they then commenced a murderous fire....Major Ormsby being then disabled, ordered a general retreat; the Indians following them closely. Nearly all who had lost their horses were soon killed; the trail of the party was soon strewn with dead bodies, saddles, guns, knives, pistols, blankets and any other articles that could be dispensed with; every man straining to save his life. The Indians followed for 20 miles, much of the time on the run.... From 50 to 60 of the party were, it is supposed killed.

Forman wrote.

...there were several hot-heads in the command, and they were eager for pursuit and for a fight with the Indians.

The whites underestimated the Paiutes who now engaged in deft strategy. Chief Truckee may

have learned military tactics while serving as Captain of Company H, consisting mostly of

Oregon Indians, under John Fremont during the Mexican War in California. Allen wrote his

account of the battle in a heroic vein, albeit portraying the whites as disorganized.

Before the whites were ready for action, one of them fired at the Indians, the ball taking effect. The Indians then commenced firing and the white charged the mount, gained it summit, the main body of the Indians falling back; but it seems that they purposely retreated in order to surround our men, for when the whites began to feel elated with success, a murderous fire was opened on both flanks, and, looking around, they found the wings of the Indian crescent rising from the sage bushes and closing behind them. They retreated to the valley, formed again, and an order was then given for a second charged, and about a dozen men obeyed the order but were soon repulsed. A retreat was now ordered, but such an order was scarcely necessary, for all was confusion. Many of the whites lay dead on the field, and the survivors had determined, every man, to save himself by flight. About a mile below the scene of the action the hills reached to the very banks of the river, and as the stream could not be forded this was the only avenue of escape. The Indians, in hot pursuit of the fugitive, perceived the importance of this pass, and many of them were seen advancing to seize it. It was then that Major Ormsby gave his last command. He turned to Captain R.G. Watkins, and remarking that he had received a mortal wound, ordered him at all hazards to gain the pass and protect the flying troops….He last heard Ormsby imploring his men, “for God’s sake to rally around him and not let his body fall into the hands of the savages;” but ‘twas in vain, the first law in nature was obeyed, and Major Ormsby fell from his horse, covered with wounds, and doubtless soon expired.

Where Allen described Ormsby as begging for help, Forman described him as nobly urging that

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We rode back four or five miles, making a stand wherever we could, and doing our best to keep the savages back. Ormsby was getting very weak from his wounds and from loss of blood, and we had to help him along. But at last we could get him no further. He was heroic to the last and although we would have stayed with him he insisted on our saving ourselves. ‘It’s all over with me,’ he said, ‘don’t bother with me, but go on and look out for yourselves.’ And we had to leave him.

According to Sarah Winnemucca’s account, written years later, when Ormsby’s saddle turned and

he fell off. Dazed and wounded, he rose from the dust then reversed his steps to face his pursuers.

Her brother, Natchez, rode forward and tried to save their "best good friend”.

He met him in the fight, and as he was ahead of the other Indians, Major Ormsbey threw down his arms and implored him not to kill him. There was not a moment to be lost. My brother said, ‘Drop down as if dead when I shoot, and I will fire over you;’ but in the hurry and agitation he still stood pleading, and was killed by another man’s shot.

On May 13, a San Francisco paper echoed the cautions of the Territorial Enterprise.

Immediately on the news being received at Carson City, a large dinner-bell was rung violently by an excited individual, who, with a great outcry, announced the same to the people, invoking them to meet and adopt measures for the speedy punishment of the Indians. On their gather, a few impetuous men, without waiting to inquire at all in the affair or suffering those who counseled moderation to be heard, at once urged the raising of volunteer force, and the adoption of other violent measures. It was in vain that the more humane and considerate interposed, urging how little we knew of the matter; how apt these reports were to be exaggerated in the first instance, and that it would be both just and politic to select a few prudent men, acquainted with the Indian character and modes of operation, to first go and ascertain all about the affair, and then make their report the basis of future action.

In hindsight, given how Ormsby and the Vigilantes had repeatedly attempted to leverage fear and

allege a great Indian threat, the entire white effort to repel the Paiutes after the “massacre” at the

Williams station is suspect. And Sarah Winnemucca’s portrayal of avenging the rape of a Native

American girl—perhaps based on an equally strong mythology and reaction by the Paiute—is

also suspect. In the wake of the “battle,” even among Ormsby’s opponents, understanding and

views of the white effort to repel the feared native threat varied. Some had decried Ormsby

meddling from the time he rang his bell to gather men. On the other hand, in the wake of the

deaths, even his opponent Richard Allen wrote:

He was my enemy, but he has fallen in defending his country against a savage and unrelenting foe, and ‘the grave shall extinguish every resentment.’

On June 3, just before the second, inconclusive battle at Pyramid Lake, as Californians rode out

to put down the alleged uprising, Major Ormsby’s brother wrote their sister. He described the

ceremony at the foot of what is today C-hill in Carson City where the militia had established

“Camp Ormsby.”

One of the greatest things for you, my dear sister, is the discovery of the Major’s remains. They are badly mutilated. I will give you the particulars when we meet. This day we are burying his remains with military honors. The Carson City Guards and others, together with two companies of regulars, Captain Stewart are conducting the ceremonies to do honor to his remains. Your neighbors and many others are anxious to render me all the assistance possible in the solemn performance. Services will be read at the grave. This camp, Capt. Stewart calls Camp Ormsby in honor of the Major.

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Carson City residents buried Major Ormsby near James Crane in what came to be called the

Pioneer Cemetery, at the foot of today’s “C Hill”. In 1885, his daughter, Lizzie, moved his

remains to Mountain View Cemetery in Oakland. During 1907, she had his body disinterred and

cremated. Lizzie may have been moving to New York or New Jersey with her husband, a Broad

Street broker. She later returned to the West. Lizzie, her children and William Ormsby’s last direct

descendant are buried at Cyprus Lawn Cemetery in San Francisco. The current location of Major

William Ormsby’s ashes remains unknown.

An Official Territory, A Funded Road And A Ghost

Not surprisingly, in the wake of Ormsby’s death, no one wanted to talk about him much. No one

wanted to consider James Crane’s Virginia agenda. And the mythology of the Nevada focused on

the alleged discovery of silver during 1859 that was said to have launched the silver state. Yet,

late at night, as the Sierra Wave hovers like an alien saucer over the valleys east of the Eastern

Slope, the ghost of Lucky Bill still gambles.

Soon after James Crane’s death, the Territorial Enterprise published a quaint explanation for how

the Comstock Lode had come to be named Virginia City. They stated that the claims known as

Virginia Diggings were named for John Berry from Virginia and that “Virginia City” was derived

from this. Another version, about Berry’s partner, James Fenimore, and a whiskey bottle, would

appear a couple years later and become enshrined as local lore. One way to reconcile this with the

influence of Crane and Ormsby lies in the possibility that the “Virginia Diggings” were name by

Berry and Fenimore while the extension of that name to the town reflected the political

machinations of Crane and Pierson. The period between Ormsby’s death and official

Congressional action in 1861 saw lots of claims, claim jumping and the arrival of numerous

attorneys.

The major mineral boom happened—and as continues with Nevada’s minerals today—virtually

all the long-term wealth left Nevada. Orsmby and Crane’s efforts to create a self-sustaining inland

empire never occurred. Though the worlds’ fifth highest

producer of gold, the state continues to squabble within

itself over grasses and continues to milk transients on the

road for their nickles. Ormsby and Crane are forgotten.

Ormsby is remembered only in the name of Ormsby

County, later changed when consolidated with Carson

City, and as the name of a hotel, today unfinished midst

intentions of reconstruction. Nevada history came to be

written in the shadow of gold’s glory-- as if it began with

the discovery of the Comstock Lode, an event perennially

popular as a folk tale about good luck.

During the final days of President Buchanan’s

administration, March of 1861, as southern legislators left

Congress in anticipation of Abraham Lincoln’s

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official creation of Nevada Territory passed in Congress. Lincoln appointed the president of New

York City’s Board of Police, James W. Nye, as Territorial Governor, perhaps hoping he could

maintain order.

During 1863, for one last time, Honey Lakers took out their shotguns and fought off taxation by

the Plumas County Sheriff. After surveys by both Nevada and California, California legislators

debated the issue and decided that California would keep Honey Lake. As a concession to local

rule, they created Lassen County. A newspaper commented:

It was thought that the best way of quieting the turbulent Honey Lakers is to give them a county of their own and let them fight it out among themselves.

It would be Lucky Bill that locals discussed for decades. He remains to lighten the load of any

traveler and undo the machinations of all politicians. A newspaper later revealed his resurrection

and why he still wanders, unavenged.

Among the number present at the hanging was one Dr. King, whose professional eye was taken by the magnificent physique of the now "Unlucky Bill." He asked the privilege of offering poor Bill's body as a sacrifice on the altar of science—the dissecting table—and the request was granted. King, who, by-the-way, was a genius in his way, and typical of a large number of the pioneers of the Far West, brought his skill to bear on what remained of Bill Thorrington, and by means of a strong electric battery and proper restoratives, resuscitated what was supposed to be the mortal remains of poor Bill. The skill of the physician was rewarded beyond his most sanguine hopes. Bill stood once more erect and in the GODLY ATTITUDE OF A MAN....

Let those who may philosophize, our duty is simply to chronicle the facts. Now, when a knot of old-timers get together over tin cups, at the crossroads, or on the street corners, it is with a whisper and bated breath that they recite what they know of the hanging of Edwards and 'Lucky Bill.'

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DREAMING UP NEVADA TERRITORY JUNE 2019

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